The Fight For Tomorrow
by AxlMaster
Summary: In the aftermath of the Fourth Shinobi War, peace reigns supreme. But there is one last enemy left to face, one who could annihilate everything and everyone Naruto has ever fought for. One last battle remains... Note: Does not follow canon to the letter. Features version of Naruto from Shinobi of Fire, Wind, & Ice.
1. Part 1: The Question

It was odd how much could change in a year or two.

How nations would grow and recede. How much a naive young chunin could become a force to be reckoned with. How wars would start and end so suddenly, and especially how quickly peace would be established. Indeed the shinobi world of today would hardly be recognized by previous generations.

The only part they would recognize would have been the Fourth Great Shinobi War, and even then it would be a jarring sight. In the time of Madara and Hashirama, wars would endure for countless generations, not begin and end in three days. In their day it was an endless blood feud between clans, brutal fighting in a brutal and fractured world. But in this age, the war had been fought by all nations. Not against each other, but beside one another. The entire world uniting against a common threat, piling together their resources and shinobi to see their world continue. The sight of this change would certainly be jarring for those of ages past.

Naruto chuckled at the image of old geezers standing open-mouthed at the thought of joining forces. Despite his current...Uphill route, Naruto felt no small amount of mirth thinking of how his world had gone through such an amazing metamorphosis from a divided - if relatively stable collection - of nations to a unified world of peace and prosperity. But then again, no metamorphosis was without its difficulties or share of ugliness, and the world needed to experience a true calamity before it rose above the ashes.

That thought caused Naruto's quiet smile to fade, but he continued his steep climb while the experience of the war flashed in his mind. So much had changed because of the events of three short days.

The war itself had been a nightmare from start to finish, an ordeal that would certainly be remembered for all of time. From the army of bizarre plant men called Zetsus to the reanimated corpses being forced to fight their former brethren, to all the tailed beasts fighting in one area. It was an earth-shattering horror unlike any seen before.

It only grew worse when the enemy of all shinobi, Madara Uchiha was resurrected. The bane of life, the walking nightmare had returned, and he sought what so many others wanted; power. The power to control all, to rule supreme over a world of his making. To that end he had summoned the king of monsters, the Ten Tailed Beast. A creature that possessed power that surpassed Madara and Hashirama's power combined a thousand fold. An eldritch abomination that had until that day existed only in myth.

Madara's plans were briefly foiled when his pawn Obito somehow managed to absorb the creature and fought against the Allied Shinobi Forces. But the efforts of Sasuke and Naruto had weakened him to the point where the ten-tails burst out of him like a fountain of supernatural horror. With Ten-Tails out in the open again, Madara sealed the beast within him as its nigh-unstoppable jinchuuriki, more powerful and devastating than Obito ever was. Naruto and Sasuke's combined strength didn't even slow him down. Nothing could stop him. His skill with the powers granted by the beast elevated him to a god that cut through hundreds of shinobi, and in the face of such power it seemed as if the shinobi world would fall. Darkness would reign supreme with Madara as its king.

But if there was one thing the world had learned from the war, it was that even in the darkest hours, one could find light and hope to keep moving forward. That hope had been in the form of Naruto Uzumaki, the number one knuckleheaded shinobi, whom had never stood down in the face of danger. Despite being battered and worn out, he somehow gathered the strength to go up against Madara, matching him blow for blow, a feat that was virtually impossible but somehow proved possible in his hands. Whether it was the grace of god or his own ridiculously thick head,Naruto pushed harder and fought fiercer than he ever had before in his life, fueled by some unbreakable resolve. He attacked with such ferocity that the majority of the forces were able to fall back and move the wounded while Madara and Naruto tore up the area.

But he could only fight Madara to a standstill for so long. It was only the timely intervention of Obito, Sasuke, Hinata, and a royally pissed off Sakura that gave Naruto a chance to regroup. A combination of Obito's remaining jinchuuriki power, Sasuke's Amaterasu, Hinata's Hyuga fighting style, and Sakura's targeting of Madara's weakspots - namely his face, neck, and groin - resulted in Madara's bond with the Ten-Tails was disrupted, which proved as enough of a distraction for Minato Namikaze to seal the other half of the Nine-Tailed Fox within his son.  
With the full power of the fox in him, Naruto unleashed an assault on the unfocused Madara, whom couldn't even coordinate given the mindless nature of the Ten-Tails screaming in his mind. Obito himself fought with all his remaining strength to further twist and bend the connection, using a small amount of the Juubi's chakra he had clung to even as the creature burst from his body. By the time Madara regained his bearings, it was already too late.

Naruto had focused all his power into one jutsu. A massive golden and fiery Rasengan fueled by the Kyuubi, Sage Mode Chakra, and Naruto's own nature transformations. Then with one final effort, Naruto obliterated Madara and the tailed beast within him in a cataclysmic energy blast that left the entire world in awe, reeling from the sheer power the shinobi wielded. When the dust settled, the war was over.

In the aftermath, Naruto wounds were tended to by Sakura. She had applied expert medical care even as she alternated between crying in joy that they had survived and chewing out Naruto for being so damned reckless...Again. But the two of them were alive and well, and surprisingly happy. Eventually they both were carried to the medics tent, as Sakura herself had wounds from the fight she had been unable to address. Many others were healed in a slow process. But every life gained was more than worth it. There were many dead, and every person who could be saved from the Reaper's clutches was each a small victory.

Those who had died on the battlefield would be buried and forever remembered for their sacrifice in ensuring the world had a future. There were many losses, but they had died to end the threat of Akatsuki and Madara. All the fighting and bloodshed had ended, and the people of the shinobi world would live to see tomorrow.

There had been other changes since that day, ones that were made by leaders who were sick and angry with the disgusting measures taken by their governments. There was a public reveal of the circumstances behind the Uchiha revolt and the Nine-Tails attack on Konoha, thus finally telling all the world the truth. It was a hard one to stomach, but Tsunade refused to cover up such horrid events for so long and demanded the new world had a fresh start, and to prevent something like that from happening ever again. Danzo's Root organization was disbanded and reintegrated back into the Konoha community, and his full machinations were revealed. Naruto smirked despite his predicament, knowing that Danzo's vision of Konoha was dead and buried.

The Tailed Beasts sealed into and released from Madara's body had all but disappeared from the world. Naruto, Killer B, and the Kages knew that the creatures had gone into temporary exile. They wanted to "get a vacation, some sweet relaxation" as Killer B described it, before they would come back. It was likely they would return soon, thankfully far more peaceful after meeting Naruto in the war.

Then there were more mundane changes that were almost as shocking as the war's ending. One that shocked the entirety of Konoha was Fifth Hokage Tsunade's decision to adopt a son, namely Naruto himself. Even Sakura, the one who knew Tsunade better than anyone was shocked. After all the only motherly instinct the Hokage had displayed was a spectacular track record at "discipline," her own form of tough love. But when one got past the thick layers of crabby behavior, she was a loving woman, and one he had gotten to know very well since first meeting her. So Naruto accepted her as his adoptive mother, and with a nearly bone-cracking embrace Tsunade welcomed him as her adoptive son.

So now Naruto had a second mom...

He still had a hard time processing that, Sakura even moreso. Naruto smiled faintly as he remembered her ridiculous overreaction to the news. She had actually fainted because she had...Trouble processing her wise yet legendarily cranky mentor as a mom. Naruto didn't blame her one bit.

But the most shocking change, one that may have surpassed even the return of the Ten-Tails, was the peace that came after the war had ended. While the shinobi villages and nations were still separate, the animosity and intense divide between them had all but disappeared. Where there were once tense truces there were now joyful welcoming of brothers-in-arms, of friendship forged in the fires of war. It was decided that the Allied Shinobi Forces would work in tandem to rebuild the damage and loss done by the Akatsuki and Madara, building a brighter tomorrow. The shinobi world was moving forward with a speed and optimism that had never been seen before.

But Naruto didn't smile at that thought. After all, he still had work to do.

While the progress that had been made was nothing short of stunning and amazing, and he looked forward to perhaps leading the village of Konoha in this new age when Kakashi retired, he couldn't focus on that. No, not yet.  
While he was joyful at the end of the war, there was still one last enemy to confront. An individual who had escaped the war without being caught. One final adversary that if left unchecked could destroy the peace they had all fought for.

Naruto grimaced, gripping onto a slippery rock to lift himself up. His circumstances in coming so far from the village weren't pleasant. He didn't want to be out here in the pouring rain. There was someone else who didn't want him going out on a dangerous mission either...

* * *

_"Naruto, you don't have to do this."_

_"I know." His headband and shoes were secure._

_"Orochimaru and Madara are dead. The Ten-Tails is gone. The War's over. He's got nothing. No allies or army, nothing."_

_"I know." Gloves were tight, and his utility belt was good._

_"If he doesn't get picked off by ANBU, then another nation will find and execute him eventually."_

_"I know." His trusty sword Namikaze was sharpened, and his scrolls were packed._

_"He's still a threat, but he's not stupid enough to attack Konoha with you and me here."_

_"I know." Everything was ready. He was ready. Satisfied and prepared for the coming battle, he slung his backpack over his shoulder and-_

_"Naruto, what are you looking for?"_

_He stopped._

* * *

The rain fell like mad. It hammered down on the forest, on the cliffside, and of course of Naruto, a mere speck of existence, an ant in the face of this torrential downpour. He loathed it to his core. It had been falling since he'd left the village, and it showed no signs of stopping for anyone or anything. Least of all a single shinobi, who was making a difficult climb despite the storm.

Naruto grunted as his hand gripped on the edge of a rock, hanging limply with a fragile hold over a dizzying height. His other hand slammed hard into the rock face, and with an uneasy foothold he leaped up ten feet. He quickly grabbed a particularly large piece of stone before gravity took hold, planted his feet on a large root, and took a moment to catch his breath. His climb would be a lot easier if there wasn't a storm overhead. Even with his hood up, this weather was proving detrimental to his progress. The rain splashed against his face, disturbing his eyesight to where he averted his gaze. Looking down he saw the thick forest he had trekked through surrounding the gigantic building. A beautiful sight, somewhat marred by the storm around him.

The downpour had been raging since he arrived in this area, and it made the ascent all the more difficult. The rocks were horribly slippery now, and the dirt was gradually turning into mud that wet his gloves, which only made it even more challenging.  
Naruto thought back to Kakashi-sensei scaling mountains with one hand tied behind his back. As a kid he thought the exercise was ridiculous, insane even. Now that he was scaling a straight drop with the worst weather possible spattering his face, he was beginning to sincerely regret turning down Kakashi's climbing lessons.  
Naruto would say anything to satisfy whatever bitter god had sent these dark clouds. He would happily tout the absolute genius of Jiraiya's perverted Icha Icha books from the heavens if it would get this damn rain to stop.

_"Focus. Come on. You can't stop now."_ he thought, shaking off his mental ramblings.

Swallowing his frustration, Naruto dug his fingers deep into the caked soil around the rock and likewise brought his feet up, resting them on a bit of rubble sticking out of the cliff. The grip wasn't perfect, but it would have to do.  
Naruto narrowed his eyes as he looked up. A few more jumps and he'd reach the top of this accursed pile of rubble. Or at least it looked like a pile rubble in it's current, wretched state.  
Slowly he closed his eyes and took one deep breath to focus and quiet his mind. There was only the mission, and he had to complete it. It was that simple, and completing it began with finishing this climb. With force strong enough to dislodge the deeply embedded rocks, Naruto shot upwards.

Naruto bolted up the cliff like an eagle, knocking out the dirt and rocks from where he jumped. With agile skill he hopped from rock to rubble to indents in what had to be the remains of a massive wall. In one final leap, Naruto soared up and over the top, rocketing through the air to gain a clear view of the wrecked and crumbling structure around him. The sight wasn't pretty.

The rubble was scattered everywhere, a sign of a battle. The dome roof was collapsed in several places, and the interior of the building was definitely showing its age. The only remaining structures were two large square towers on opposite ends of the building, so tall they towered over Naruto even as he reached the top of his arc.

He fell back down with lightning speed, not bothering to worry about injury from something so piddly as a fifty-foot drop. His hood and black coat flapped out behind him like tails as he rocketed straight down to the roof faster than the rain itself. His feet landed with a small but harsh impact, joined quickly by his fist slamming down into the concrete. The decayed material cracked and splintered under him, signaling the arrival of Naruto Uzumaki. He had made it.

He didn't bother checking the area for enemies. He didn't need to. He'd scanned the entire complex with his Kurama-enhanced senses as he had scaled the cliff. There was only one person here who didn't want to hide. Why should he? Naruto and Sakura were the only ones on the planet who could be a threat to him. Besides, he and Naruto were both expecting this, they had been since the war ended.

"Naruto. It's about time you arrived."

Naruto's fist tightened as he slowly rose from his crouch. His head was angled down with arms at his side, ready for any sudden moves from his host, who seemed nonchalant about this sudden meeting. With an icy gaze Naruto pulled off his hood to glare back at the only other living creature within five miles of the ruined building. Ever since the battle between two brothers, all the wildlife had fled this building and the nearby forest from the magnitude of that the insects, birds and deer were utterly gone.  
Naruto still remembered seeing the devastation wrought by that battle. The blood, the sick chakra in the air, the grim and rotten tang that hung over the entire building. But most of all he remembered the evil, monstrous flames that lingered for days, burning everything in their path. Those abominable black flames.

Even with the blood dried and flames gone, Naruto could feel the dark aura emanating from this place that was centered around the sole resident. Above him was their proud symbol: a large red war fan. Beneath it the man sat on a chair carved out of the stone that once comprised his clan's hideout. Naruto's former teammate and friend. A man he once called his brother, whom he'd gladly lay down his life to protect, whom he promised to bring back to their home no matter how many bones he had to break. Who'd been the cause of such pain in this world to so many innocent people, who now were calling him "The second Madara."

Now he was just his target, an objective. Another mission he had to complete.

"You're not exactly easy to find. Sasuke."

* * *

_"Naruto, what are you looking for?"_

_He stopped, Sakura's question ringing in his ears._

_"I just feel...Heavy."_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"I feel this burden on me. That's it." He averted his gaze with a troubled grimace, but she quickly walked up to him with a faintly commanding and nurse-like tone._

_"Hey, come on now baka. Do not shut me out." She spoke sternly, though she softened at seeing him so troubled, and spoke quietly._

_"Talk to me. Please." Her eyes pierced into his soul. He sighed, unable to hold up under her emerald orbs._

_"There's a weight on my shoulders Sakura. I need to remove it. I need to remove...Him."_

_"But he's not coming back-" Then he snapped, barely containing his anger and fear._

_"We don't know that! We can't know for sure that he won't go on the warpath, again! I am not risking anyone's safety over Sasuke suddenly becoming complacent! Least of all yours Sakura!"_

_"Naruto.." Sakura muttered, surprised by his burst. He sighed, apologetic._

_"I'm sorry Sakura. I don't mean to get angry at you. I just...I have to do this,"_

_He stroked her pink hair._

_"I'm not happy about choosing to do this Sakura, I wish he could just disappear forever, leave the rest of the world and us get on with our lives. But I know he won't."_

_She looked deep in his eyes with a question burning in her mind._

_"Do you hate yourself for choosing to do this?" she asked_

_Naruto paused._

_"No."_

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki. Two sides of the same coin. Brothers, rivals, friends, opponents, comrades, enemies. Glaring at each other, they stood atop the ruins of what was the Uchiha hideout as the torrential downpour fell across the dome, slowing gathering into dirty puddles or slowly flowing off the parts of the roof that were still intact around them. The clouds overhead were black as night, heavy as steal, growing more intense the closer Naruto got to the hideout. Now they stood in the center of the storm, its apex. The weather itself seemed to mirror the deathly air created by the two shinobi.

A large, heavy raindrop fell onto Naruto's headband with a faint _plink_. Slowly it fell down the smooth and polished metal until it fell, fell just below Naruto's eye onto his cheek. But he didn't react, he was too focused on his enemy. His senses were picking up everything around him. He noticed that raindrop, every raindrop that fell on his body. He felt the faint cold breeze flowing through the rain, and he felt every fiber, muscle, and bone in his body stand ready. Ready to fight the Uchiha who sat leisurely on the crumbled throne, glaring back at Naruto with his clear black eyes. Eyes that held a much darker power than most in this world, that could trap one's mind in a never-ending torture, or bathe the target in nigh-immortal black flames, or even summon a radiant giant capable of rewriting the maps with a single sword swing. Right now, Naruto faced a monster with cold killer instincts, yet was once his best friend.

"So...How are you nowadays Sasuke?"  
Sasuke's blank stare barely changed at the question, and he remained silent.

"Are you doing well?" Naruto looked at the surroundings. "You've got a nice place now. Though it could use some patching up in...Well, everywhere." Sasuke remained silent.

"Have you found somebody? Some nice girl to settle down with?" Naruto asked. "Or are you still doing that brooding routine? I guess that works if you want to be all mysterious. Being the strong silent type and such."

"Evidently you still prefer to babble on, Naruto." Sasuke said. "I'm surprised Sakura didn't pulverize you a thousand times over by now if you're still as talkative as ever."

"You have no idea." Naruto chuckled. "Thankfully she learned showing affection with her fists isn't the best approach."

"...So, you two are together I'm gathering."

"Pretty much yeah..." Naruto's eyes narrowed. "You jealous?" Sasuke almost showed an emotion when he scoffed.

"Please. It hardly matters to me that my former teammates are lovers now-"

"Vigorous lovers." Naruto interjected.

"-it doesn't matter to me anyway. I never had interest in her to begin with." Naruto would've burst into laughter at that line, if he didn't feel so mirthless with Sasuke's casual disregard for them all.

"I gathered that when you tried killing her. Twice." Naruto faintly snarled. Sasuke could only sigh.

"Are we really going to be spending all night talking about romance Naruto?"

"Well it's not like we could talk about the weather now could we." Naruto looked up at the sky, seeing the heavy pitch black clouds looming overhead. Clouds that waited for the inevitable bloodshed to stain the water. "Sasuke, you should have found a different place. Maybe one with a roof." Sasuke merely sneered as rain fell around them with a soft pitter-patter as it collided with the stone.

"Well, it's not like I had anywhere else to go." he spoke venomously. Naruto shook his head with a bittersweet sigh. Even after all this time Sasuke had to know better than that.

"You had a home Sasuke." Naruto faintly snickered. "Once."  
Naruto's gaze remained affixed to Sasuke. The former Konoha shinobi wore a black cloak nearly identical to his former Akatsuki garb, minus the red cloud pattern. Naruto could see the edge of a red and white circle on his back, the Uchiha symbol. His former comrade bore the hatred of his clan on his back, and it shined through his now blood red Sharingan eyes. He didn't attack, he didn't even move a muscle. Merely looked back with those damned eyes, filled with contempt and loathing of the knucklehead shinobi.

"The village was never my home Naruto, never **our** home." He indicated to the fan symbol of his clan, and looked back at Naruto with quiet disgust. "My clan was broken and tamed by the First Hokage when they came to the village. It was a prison for them, and it stopped being my home when it ripped the Uchiha to shreds."

"The plans of a corrupt few ripped your clan apart Sasuke." Naruto corrected. "One of whom you killed already, and the other two were fired for incompetence...Finally." Sasuke spat at the ground.

"Don't try to pretend the village is innocent in this. Your beloved Third Hokage agreed with their plan, and used my brother to kill everyone he ever knew, save me. Did people mourn for my clan's loss? Did the villagers ever acknowledge the massacre? No, they moved on from a clan they had wronged from the very start."

"We did build a memorial to your clan Sasuke, after the war ended."

"Is that supposed to make me forgive you all?" Sasuke responded. "Nice try, but nothing has ever filled that void Naruto. None of you ever came close to healing that wound, and you never will."

"So, it all meant nothing to you then. The time spent fighting, bleeding, laughing, it never meant a damn thing in your eyes." Naruto chuckled as the rain continued to fall. "No, if it meant nothing to you, there would've been no point in you trying to kill me back at the Valley. Guess you're a lot more heartless than I thought. if you're willing to kill your best friend...Again."  
Sasuke did not respond as his blank face morphed into a frown. His fist clenched tight on his chair as Naruto felt a flow of dark chakra from him.

"It did mean something, once. The friendship we once had made me stronger and helped me realize my goals. But it does not mean anything to me now. Now that village is just an insult to my clan, made by the same villagers who are now living in peace, while the last monument to my clan crumbles around me! My brother is dead, Obito is dead, Madara is dead. Everyone in my clan is dead! I'm the last of the Uchiha, but I will not let our legacy die here!" Sasuke rose from his seat, picking up his sword and holstering it at his side. Naruto began to feel a tenseness in his gut. It wouldn't be long now.

"The sight of my clans home is now a mass grave, abandoned to the ravages of time. I cannot let **that** village stand free of their crimes." Naruto gazed back into Sasuke's bitter eyes, unfeeling. His eyes were focused but lacked emotion, staring forth and fueled by hatred as black as the flames of Amaterasu.

That village.

That was all what Konoha was to Sasuke Uchiha now. Just the oppressors of his clan, a crime he felt that every man, woman, and child was fully guilty of. It was an insult to him and his clan, something to wipe of the face of the earth.

"And if I cannot have my revenge, then I will take you, who, the bandits now call the 'Orange Fire Shadow ' with me." Naruto couldn't help but feel a tiny spark of pride at his nickname that had spread across the countries. But he regained his senses as Sasuke slowly stepped down from his throne.

"I can't just let you waltz in and destroy my home Sasuke. You know I wont let you touch a single hand on a single villager. If I have to take you down, then I will."  
Sasuke drew his blade, Kusanagi, and brandished it with practiced hands.

"I want Konoha gone, yet you want me dead. It seems we're at an impasse."

"I never said I **wanted** to kill you Sasuke." Naruto responded grimly. The words made Sasuke scowl.

The dumb-ass came here with such weak resolve, so little mettle in his heart, and expected to survive!?

"Then tell me Naruto, what do you want? Why are you here!?"  
Naruto did not respond, titling his gaze up to the clouds. They poured down on them as if the angels themselves were crying for the battle that was about to begin. He looked up at those clouds with thoughts Sasuke couldn't feel. For all his time spent with the jinchuuriki, the dope could still keep his thoughts and motives to himself.  
That the idiot came here without intent to kill was only further insult to him. It was like Naruto refused to acknowledge his emotions, still insisting that he'd bring Sasuke back home to Konoha!

"Well, you'll have to kill me first if you want to accomplish anything!" Sasuke charged straight at Naruto, splashing through puddles with lightning speed, jumping through the air with sword held high and flickering with lightning that swung through straight down to Naruto's head.  
But with a magnificent clang that scattered water all around them, Sasuke found his blade meeting Naruto's own weapon: Namikaze. Forged from special chakra-absorbing metal and Naruto's old headband, the collapsible wide blade had extended from his arm in a flash and knocked aside Sasuke's Sword of Kusanagi. Sasuke quickly moved his feet to nimbly kick off the blonde shinobi, who hardly reacted from the sudden force. The Uchiha landed in a puddle with a large splash while the Uzumaki readjusted his stance through several small patches of water with Namikaze extended to its full length on his arm.

There they stood. Friends &amp; enemies. Ready for battle.

The two bolted straight at each other, blades at the ready. Sasuke brought his sword rushing down while Namikaze sang it's metallic melody through the raindrops that landed on its blade. The weapons moved so quickly that raindrops were divided in their wake, and then they collided. The force was so great the rain all around the dome briefly stopped, scattered aside from the impact.

For a split second, the dome was calm, quiet. Then the torrent resumed, crashing down on the roof as the warriors engaged each other. Their weapons danced as their wielders slashed and stabbed at each other in a flurry of swordplay. Only one would survive. Only one of them would live to see their dreams come true. But something tickled Naruto's mind, distracting him in the midst of the battle.

Sasuke's question still rang in Naruto's ears as their blades danced through the rain.

Why had he come here?

* * *

_"Why are you doing this Naruto? We've won the war."_

_"I know we have. It's just that..."_

_Naruto slumped down on their bed with a heavy sigh. Sakura sat next to him, pulling him close to her and resting his head on her shoulder._

_"I know you're not doing this out of revenge Naruto. You're not going to kill him, or anyone out of petty childhood squabbles."_

_"Well, we all had a hand in those...Disagreements Sakura." Naruto spoke dryly._

_"I know..." She leaned on him, stroking his hair in silence for a time as the memories of their days bickering with each other in Team 7 came racing back. Arguing amongst themselves and ridiculing one another without mercy. She had thrown such scorn at him. So many punches._

_But most of all she remembered the day she begged him to bring back Sasuke, a day that caused him so much grief for years. She still felt guilty over it, him making that damn promise._

_"Naruto," she whispered "I can't ever apologize enough to you, but I'm still so sorry for all the pain I caused you back then."_

_Naruto merely smiled, kissing her cheek in response._

_"Don't be. It's in the past now, and besides...It was all worth it just to be here with you."_

_"...Really?"_

_"Yep."_

_"...Thank you." She whispered with a content smile._

_For a while, the two sat there, taking time to enjoy being with each other. Hearing the sound of the others heartbeat, the rise and fall of their breathing. Sakura was truly content. No, overjoyed to be here with him, her one true love._

_"Naruto, I'm happy beyond words to be here now. But taking up this mission. Going off to kill...Him. I can't help it, but I'm scared." Naruto sat up quickly to look Sakura in the eyes with fierce determination and assurance._

_"Don't be. He'll never come back to haunt us." Sakura frowned slightly in response._

_"I'm not scared for myself Naruto. I'm scared for you. Even if Sasuke is just a loner now, he was once a person I was fond of. You two were like brothers before he left. I know he meant a lot to you just like he did me. He was our teammate and friend, and I'm frightened of what killing him will do to you."_

_Naruto had no words to respond with, and Sakura's eyes drilled into his very being._

_"Naruto, why is it that only you can do this?" She said. Naruto opened his mouth, but he was hushed when Sakura placed a finger on his lips. Fingers that could pierce through titanium rested like a feather_

_"Now don't you dare say something like closure, I know you. You loved Sasuke like a brother, and this can't be something as simple as closure. Please, look me in the eye and tell me why, why is this something only you can do?"_

* * *

**_End of Part 1_**


	2. Part 2: Answers

The sky was pitch black from the fleet of storm clouds. The moon and stars were completely obscured above the dark tapestry that hung over the entire Fire Country. The people of Konoha looked to the oncoming storm as a bad omen. Something was coming, or it was already here, and about to wreak some terrible vengeance upon them

Children clung to their mothers as fathers watched the storm with alert eyes. Some people were say that a new threat was emerging in the wake of the war. Only a few were brave enough to whisper that the "Second Madara" was gathering strength, that the storm was him flexing his might. So few of them knew the real reason for it. It wasn't a storm. This wasn't the herald of the apocalypse.  
It was a side effect. Born of two men, two indomitable wills, two forces of nature slamming into each other disturbing the sky itself with their struggle. The wariness of the villagers was nothing compared to the fear of a mere few who knew the true cause of the storm. The thunder and wind and rain above the village, they knew that those were mere shadows of the gale and chaos around where the battle was unfolding. They were right.

Namikaze and Kusanagi slid through water drops as their wielders were locked in a fierce duel. Kusanagi blocked a downward slash from Naruto, and pulled back as Sasuke prepared a lunge. The thin sword shot straight at Naruto's heart with lightning speed, and Naruto's armblade whistled through the air and smashed aside the lethal strike so Sasuke's sword hit nothing but more rain. In a split second Naruto ducked low before another strike could be made at his head, and his leg shot out in a sweeping maneuver at Sasuke's legs.

His foot only brushed the cloth before Sasuke managed to back flip out of reach. Mid-air, Sasuke let loose a volley of spinning shuriken augmented by his lightning element affinity, which increased their speed and cutting power enough to slice through a body like hot butter. The shuriken's collided with Naruto's chest and cut through his body, exiting out his rib-cage and leaving dozens of small bleeding holes while Sasuke looked on, hiding his intense glee beneath a faint smirk.

Naruto's body exploded into a puff of smoke; a shadow clone.

Sasuke scanned the area for any sign of the idiot and found nothing. Then he heard the faint thrashing of cloth just overhead. He looked up to see the real Naruto attacking from above. With nothing but a cold and focused glare he brought Namikaze down on Sasuke with speed that the Uchiha had never expected from someone who was dead last in class. The blade seemed to sing a metallic melody as it passed through the raindrops, coming closer and closer to its target.  
Sasuke raised his arm up to block the blade as it hit with considerable power, enough to force Sasuke to his knee and burst the ground beneath him into rubble. Before Naruto could drive his blade any deeper, Sasuke slammed the butt of Kusanagi up into his opponent's stomach, knocking him back through the air.

Naruto gently slid back several feet on the slick rooftop before coming to a halt. The soreness in his stomach was dwarfed by the glint of satisfaction in his mind. He had struck the first blow.  
The crystal clear raindrops fell freely into the puddles around the blond shinobi, but now they were joined by drops of crimson falling off Namikaze's edge, tainting the water with Sasuke's blood. The slice was not deep, but Naruto's efforts left a long cut on Sasuke's arm that was creating a dark stain on his sleeve. Whether or not the Uchiha felt the pain, Naruto couldn't tell nor did he care. The quicker this mission could be completed, the better.  
He grimaced at his handiwork. Not because it was a wound to his former friend, but because it should've been a lethal attack. He could have ended it with that attack, but he just grazed Sasuke's arm.

Sasuke seemed to notice the frustration on Naruto's face. "You're distracted Naruto." Despite the wound he had received, he looked... Disappointed.

"Am I? Namikaze says different." Naruto swung his arm, splashing the blood onto the ground with a vaguely smug grin. But Sasuke saw right through the mask. He knew that Naruto was faltering.

"Do not hide your mistakes Naruto, we both know you could have at least slashed my throat with that strike, but you faltered just enough for me to block. You've come here without the intent to kill."  
Naruto sighed, slowly strolling to his right while Sasuke began walking to his left, both curving to walk in a circle. They watched each other closely for any movement, any sign of a jutsu being prepared or flares of chakra. As soon as a moment of weakness was detected, they would strike. Sasuke raised his left arm, creating a small flame on his finger, and brought it up to his cut arm.

"A measly scratch like this won't slow me down." Sasuke slowly stroked the fire along his arm, cauterizing the wound instantly with the technique. He showed no signs of pain, as if he couldn't even feel the fire searing his flesh together. To Naruto, the display smacked of showing off and trying to appear strong. It was a cheap attempt to intimidate him. He smirked, it was just like Sasuke to act tough like this.

"So scratches won't do anything to you then. Good to know."

"Nothing will, or did you think I'd be so easily hindered?"

Naruto snickered, brandishing Namikaze as its blade whistled the metallic note. "Maybe I'll break every bone in your body, see if that works."

"You couldn't break a single bone when I left the village. You can't stop me Naruto, not when you're still holding back."

Naruto's eyes narrowed while Sasuke's turned blood red and formed three black tomoe. The eyes that killed countless people throughout history, that were once known across the shinobi world but now resided solely in Sasuke's skull. The Sharingan had activated, bringing all the pain, anger, and hatred to the forefront of Sasuke's being that stared back at Naruto.

"As I've said before Naruto, you'll need to kill me if you want to accomplish anything," Sasuke brandished Kusanagi into a two-handed grip, holding the menacing sword in front of him as raindrops splashed on its blunt side. Like its wielder, the blade was focused for one task, one purpose; killing. "and if you don't fight with the intent to kill, you'll die here, and Konoha will die with you!" Sasuke turned into a blur as he ran, and his sword clashed with Naruto's blade. The sound from the two blades colliding was deafening, and Sasuke attacked with blinding fury, a wild yet focused barrage fueled by his anger and hate that made him unpredictable in his attacks. His sword would slash down only to twirl and cut upwards, then pull back for a deadly thrust.

"Try to give me a challenge before I gut you Naruto!" Sasuke taunted, just barely missing Naruto's throat as his sword passed by.

The ground around them was being sliced by the onslaught Sasuke was unleashing on Naruto, who was losing ground fast under the tidal wave of anger before him. It took all his focus just to keep from getting hit by the sword. He couldn't even consider attacking unless he wanted to be sliced into bloody ribbons. But as his opponent stared into his eyes with utter hatred, Naruto's mind was distracted with Sasuke's question.

Why was he here?

Sasuke laughed as Naruto kept being forced back further and further under his expert swordsmanship. With each second the Uchiha moved faster and faster, and Naruto was just barely matching his speed purely for defense. He was locked in, he couldn't strike back like this at all. Sasuke was focused on one task with his entire being. Like his sword, he was sharpened to accomplish a goal with every fiber of his being. He had a reason to fight on, so what was Naruto's? "To remove a burden" was what he had said to Sakura. But now that didn't feel accurate. His reason for being here, fighting his former brother-in-arms burned in his mind, more than it should have from his self-doubt. This whole fight didn't feel right to him, like his mind was drenched in oil that kept him from focusing properly. Every time he looked back at Sasuke's eyes he-. Sasuke's eyes.

"Die Naruto, and take your worthless Konoha with you!" Sasuke raised his sword overhead as lightning cracked the sky, illuminating the battlefield in bright light as Kusanagi sliced through the air to reach Naruto's head.  
The idiot could only stand there as death approached. Finally the greatest obstacle in Sasuke's life would be removed! This would be the day Naruto Uzumaki would die!

In Naruto's mind it all faded out. Everything turned gray.

Time slowed...

* * *

"_Please, look me in the eye and tell me why, why is this something only you can do?" Sakura took Naruto's hands into hers, squeezing them tight from both fear and love._

_"Why do you have to risk your life, everything for this?" She said, still gazing into him. Naruto stared back at the love of his life with a look of sad nostalgia._

_"Everything's changed so much from my childhood." Naruto looked out their window, gazing onto the proud and mighty Konoha. The sunset was bathing the numerous buildings and shops in beautiful golden light as the faint sounds of people in the streets could be heard. The footsteps made by families on their way home and the laughter of children. He sighed while a faint smile crossed his lips._

_"The village is rebuilt, the war is over," Naruto locked back at Sakura, grinning._

_"and best of all, I'm with you." She blushed, smiling back at her one and only dope._

_"We've all been through so much, and at times it looked like we were all doomed. But we won, and now we can enjoy some peace and quiet. The village, Kakashi, you and me, we've beaten Madara and earned our happy endings." Naruto gazed deep into Sakura's eyes with love and total honesty._

_"We love each other, and we deserve some peace." _

_"Damn straight__." She chuckled in response._

_"But," Naruto added. "there's someone out there who people still live in fear of, someone who wants to burn this village to the ground. I've heard more than a few of the shinobi asking when Sasuke will return, when the next great war is coming. Despite us almost losing everything in the war people are still scared of what's to come, like he's the next Madara."_

_Sakura's brow furrowed as Naruto continued. Sasuke wouldn't go that far, would he? _

_"People are still scared and hiding from something that could happen at any moment. They shouldn't have to live in fear. You shouldn't have to.." he sighed._

_"I know you're worried Sakura, even if you won't tell me I just know you're thinking about what could happen if Sasuke decides he wants revenge and comes back. Everyone's been through so much, and still they live in fear."_

_Naruto slumped a bit, staring out the window with a faintly hopeful light in his eyes._

_"I want people here to be able to live their lives. If I take remove the last great terror, people won't have to be scared of the past or afraid of the next day. They can move on. If I die out there, than you can be certain I will take Sasuke with me, and the village can be safe again." He rested his hand on Sakura's cheek, gazing at the most important person in his life with a truly earnest smile."_

_It's a sacrifice I'm happy to make for the people who've given me so much. For the woman I love."_

_With a calming breath, Naruto rose from the bed, adjusting his coat without looking at Sakura, who remained on the bed. Naruto knew he just couldn't look back, knowing what would ensue. If he looked into those emerald eyes he would never, ever want to leave, but he had to for everyone's sake._

_He slung his backpack over his shoulders and re-tightened his headband. Now was the time to leave before he lost daylight. He really didn't want to leave so quickly, but he had to get moving now, before Sasuke could make the first move. He strolled up to the door and raised his hand to turn the nob, to begin the long journey to the place Sasuke would most likely be hiding. If he ran fast enough he could reach the Uchiha Hideout before-._

_Naruto his hand was stopped by another gently but firmly grabbing his wrist. To his surprise Sakura had moved from the bed without making a single noise and appeared at his side before he had even noticed. and the look in her eyes, those green orbs he had become enraptured with, nearly broke his heart._

_Just like so many years before she was on the brink of tears, barely holding her composure as she looked at her dear Naruto, fearing this would be the last time they ever saw each other. She was trembling. Before he could move to comfort her, Sakura spoke, her voice quavering._

_"Baka," She said shakily. "thinking you can just throw your life away like that. Didn't you ever think about how I'd feel about this? How angry I'd be with you if you died? I use Edo Tensei just so I could punch you for being so stupid." Sakura paused to wipe her eyes, and Naruto had to resist dropping his bags and embracing her without ever letting go. But she didn't want comfort, she wanted to be heard, and Naruto would listen._

_"I need you to make me a promise." she said. __"It's very important to me that you keep it. You'll make me very, very sad if it's broken." She pulled his hand into her open, nervous palms, gripping it so tight that it was starting to hurt Naruto, but he didn't care about that, only the words Sakura spoke._

_"I'm not asking you to bring back Sasuke. I just want you to promise...Promise..." Tears began flowing down her cheek like two rushing rivers. She leaned close to Naruto's face to look deep into his soul, finding the person she loved more than anything in this world, whom she couldn't bare to lose. He'd been with her every step of the way even when she pushed him back from their first day as Team 7. He did everything he could to help her when Sasuke departed, and he stood by her when all she wanted was to be left alone to her misery. She loved him with every fiber of her being. She only had one request, one desperate plea he had to accept.._

_"Naruto, promise me you won't die." She uttered, barely louder than a whisper yet wailing her fear in his mind. The fear and pain in her words was deafening to Naruto, leaving him stunned at seeing her being so scared for his safety._

_Sakura only barely finished speaking before she broke down into tears, crying into his chest.. Naruto hugged her for dear life as her tears continued fell from her eyes, landing on the floor with tiny drips. Naruto himself felt his own eyes shedding tears at the fear of not ever seeing her again. For a while they just let themselves slip into their embrace, united in a shared fear of what was to come and giving comfort to the other by helping them carry the burden. Sometimes they didn't need to speak a single word to say everything on their mind to the other._

_When Naruto sensed Sakura had calmed somewhat, he looked her deep in the eyes, a million words passing between them in a few seconds, and feeling more connected than they'd ever been before. Naruto slowly closed his eyes, and their lips inched closer and closer together. They kissed with raw passion, putting all their gratitude, appreciation, need, and love for each other in that single act before they parted. Naruto smiled, resting his forehead on Sakura's own expansive brow that he loved. She was still watery-eyed, and shook slightly in his arms._

_"Come back to me. Don't die Naruto...Please." she whispered._

* * *

"Die Naruto, and take all of Konoha with you!" Sasuke screamed.

"No."

A loud clang echoed on the rooftop, a burst of air and kinetic energy that cracked the ground around the combatants with a shock-wave from the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object. All of a sudden, Kusanagi was stopped dead its tracks. Not by Namikaze, but by Naruto's gloved hand. The sight caused Sasuke's face to contort in anger and confusion.  
How the hell had Naruto managed to stop his blade that easily!? Blocking with a sword he could understand, but he shouldn't be capable of something like this!

Naruto's hand was undamaged, protected by tough material in his gloves, and his eyes were concealed, looking down slightly. He seemed to be in a calm state and at ease even as the storm raged on around them. Standing there, Naruto's lips began to part in a snarl that lacked the savage ferocity of his Kyuubi – induced rages. But it filled Sasuke with something he hadn't felt since the battle with Madara: terror.

"I won't die here." Naruto's grip on Kusanagi tightened while Sasuke struggled in vain to remove the blade from his opponents grasp.

"These gloves are of a special make," he said with an idle tone. "they were hand-crafted for durability and maximum protection, using special cloth infused with the chakra of the gloves maker and user, which gives it incredible properties. They can channel nature transformations, and they're able to block slashes and stop most blunt attacks by pumping chakra into the threads." Naruto looked up at Sasuke and smiled, whom snarled back in fury.

"Why the hell are you telling me about some damn gloves?" Sasuke growled. Naruto grabbed Sasuke's other arm with his free hand, locking the Uchiha in an iron grip. The jinchuuriki gave a fierce and almost psychotic snarl that bared his massive canine teeth. His eyes were filled with his omnipresent defiant attitude and an utter pitying contempt for his former teammate.

"Because these were made by the woman you tried to kill. The woman I love." Sasuke's eyes narrowed. Of course Sakura would be meddling in their fight. Even when she wasn't here, Sakura was still interfering with his goals. His irritation quickly died however when Naruto's entire body started radiating brilliant flame-like chakra, and his snarl turned more ferocious with each word.

"Don't you dare even think you can harm her you bastard. She means everything thing to me, and no matter what you do, no matter what happens here tonight,"

The ground around them exploded, and Naruto's voice reverberated as if power and itself were speaking through him and directing their might solely at Sasuke.

"I'M COMING BACK TO HER!"

With new-found strength Naruto yanked Sasuke to the side with such force the Uchiha was wrenched off of his feet. Like a spinning top, Naruto twisted in a circle, pulling and swinging Sasuke around like a rag doll to build up momentum. With an angry shout he hurled Sasuke across the rooftop, scattering puddles in his wake with the sheer force of his flight.  
Sasuke flailed through the air and smashed through piles of rubble that were like cardboard under the strength of the throw, each one shattering and falling to pieces as Sasuke flew and crashed into the ground. The Uchiha rolled along the ground for several dozen feet before he managed to stab Kusanagi into the roof to grind to a sudden halt in front of his makeshift throne. The impact had done little to harm him, but the anger he felt to Naruto, and Sakura by extension was impalpable.

Just like those years ago they were trying to stop him from achieving what he truly desired. Sakura's attempts to gain his heart were absolutely pathetic, and Naruto's insufferable grin had been permenantely etched into his mind as the source of so much of his anger. His two "teammates" were obstacles to be torn apart now.

Naruto himself took a second to regain his bearings, breathing deeply to calm himself and focus his rage. He knew blind anger wasn't going to win this battle, the calm focus of a shinobi was. With several breaths he felt his emotions calm and his body relax. Standing, he re-tightened his headband with that same snarl as if he was channeling Kurama.

_"You've sure gotten ferocious boy." _He wasn't though, but the fox damn sure thought his container was drawing on its strength from that display.

_"Thanks." _

_"I recommend you target his throat again, because I'm sick of hearing his voice. Better yet, you should go into Version 2 and rip him to shreds. Maul him boy!"_

_"When I'm facing someone who deserves to be mauled I'll gladly follow your advice. But this isn't the time for mauling-"_

_"It's always the time for mauling boy!"_

_"Kurama, please just make sure his genjutsu doesn't work."_

_"Fine," the fox grunted. "just don't get killed here boy, and give him a few punches from me."_

Naruto smirked at the fox's request.

_"Will do."_

The knucklehead shinobi remained where he stood. Strong, powerful, and ready to fight at last. Nothing was holding him back now. He could feel his entire being crying out for battle. Even his blade seemed to be emitting a desire for combat that resonated with his soul. Today his blade would sing. Naruto raised the extended Namikaze, pointing his armstraight to the sky. The pitch black clouds continued to rain down upon the shinobi and splash against their weapons.  
The faint sound of clicking machinery rang out from Naruto's arm, and Namikaze ejected from his sleeve in a flash, shooting up several feet as it assembled into its proper form. With loud _clinks_ and _clangs_, the metal sections extended and aligned into one wide shining single-edged blade, and the sheath likewise folded out to complete the sword, before it landed back in Naruto's open hand.  
The blade hummed as Naruto lowered it at his side, a piercing but faint tune of death that was quite soothing to his ears. Ever since he forged the weapon it had always sang for him on the battlefield and in meditation, letting him always blow away the fog in his thoughts. He was clear of all doubt and illusions. His mind felt clear and calm.

Strangely, he somehow felt...Relieved. The anticipation of this moment had built a deep anxiety within him that had Sasuke managed to exploit. But now he remembered why he was here. He was here fighting for everyone he loved. Protecting those who mattered most to him and ensuring they all had a sunrise to wake up to.

A thousand faces flashed through his mind. The villagers, his classmates in the Academy, the other members of the Konoha 11. Kakashi, Sai, and Yamato. Sakura. He felt the thousands of bonds he'd forged, each one a precious link and a reason to fight on, and to never stop fighting to protect those bonds. Naruto was still completely focused on his goal, but he felt that unbearable tension ease itself. It was kind of funny, but his shoulders felt lighter.

With a quiet sigh the blond shinobi raised his sword, holding it out in front of him like it was just another day of training. He stood motionless in the pouring rain, and closed his eyes as drops fell around him. His mind emptied itself, becoming clear of all doubt and distractions. In a similar manner to using Sage Mdode, Naruto relaxed, and attuned himself to the world around him like the toads had taught him.

Sasuke watched Naruto closely with great suspicion.  
Naruto was standing there without moving a muscle, just completely still. The rain continued to fall around them, now with such intensity that it was creating a thick mist in the air that obscured Sasuke's vision, even with his Sharingan. A gray, heavy cloud had settled on the battlefield, and the air suddenly became very still despite the loud thumping of the water on concrete.  
Sasuke felt the atmosphere becoming unbearably tense, with a growing unease in his being, something gripping at his core with an icy hand, and every breathe he took, every time he adjusted himself it felt like he was encroaching a predator's territory. To him it was as if there were thousands of threads in the air, and every single one of them was being pulled taut by Naruto so tight they risked snapping apart. Any moment they could break and the jinchuuriki would come crashing down like the storm above them now.

Sasuke could just barely make out his enemy, wearing that long black cloak with orange borders, standing like a shinigami on the prowl in a thick mist that foretold his arrival. It was in that cloud of mist with the heavens raining down on them stood Naruto Uzumaki. Waiting. Watching. Silently. It became eerily quite despite the rain. Sasuke could tell something was coming, but he could hardly confirm it through the mist. He barely saw Naruto's arm flicker for a split second, and Namikaze was swung with a barely noticeable yet quick and precise swipe.

Nothing happened...

Then the air reverberated with the sound of a sonic boom.

Suddenly the rain and mist was blasted away by an intense wall of wind. Sasuke's vision was briefly restored through the clear air, and his ears ringed painfully from the explosion of sound before the wall finally hit him. The force of it knocked him off of his feet, spinning through the air. He was left stunned Sasuke, disoriented. He fell onto his back with a painful impact as he ripped a small trail along the roof. He wrestled control over his senses, flipping back to land on his feet in a hunched skid, looking up to see the mist had returned. Naruto was gone. Sasuke's vision and chakra sense regained control, to the sight of the jinchuuriki barreling down on him from above.

Naruto had closed the considerable distance between them in an instant and now attacked with Namikaze in what felt like dozens of directions at once. He became a blur as his blade madly howled its metallic song in Sasuke's ears like an other-worldly battle cry that reflected Naruto's own razor-sharp ferocity, both of which mirrored his fighting style. Instinctual, bestial, and yet focused and refined at the same time. Every movement was an attack, or masking one. Every motion was focused with the intent to obliterate.

Sasuke parried a heavy horizontal strike, only to find Naruto's blade redirecting into a vertical slash that barely missed slicing Sasuke's arm in half length-wise. A jab at his chest that was dodged turned out to be a distraction for a quick nip on his shoulder from the tip of Namikaze's blade. A nonsensical taunt would cause frustration that would distract from an uppercut to the jaw.

The shinobi was attacking with an unseen intensity that was pushing Sasuke on the defensive, a blinding speed that Sasuke even with his Sharingan couldn't follow, which shouldn't even be possible! As if in response to his bewilderment, Naruto faintly smiled as rain splattered against his face.

"What's wrong Sasuke? Need glasses?" he chirped.

Sasuke narrowly dodged another swipe to his abdomen only to feel a fist hit his ribs, followed closely by a blow to his face from the sword's handle. His Sharingan should be able to anticipate these kind of moves, but it wasn't working! Naruto was completely countering the ocular jutsu's abilities. No, if he was countering it would be affecting the Sharingan in some way. This wasn't a counter, it was completely slipping beneath the radar, and it only pissed off Sasuke.

He made a precise swipe to Naruto's feet only to see the moron nimbly flip back, his coat flowing in the wind and rain. With a grace and balance that Sasuke never expected, Naruto balanced on the ground by the tip of his sword to do a makeshift pole vault maneuver to launch him feet first into Sasuke's smug face, eliciting a sickening crack from the jaw as Sasuke was sent tumbling back along the cracked roof.

"Guess your 'visual prowess' isn't all its cracked up to be, huh?" Naruto taunted.

Again the moron mocked the entire clan. He was obviously trying to get Sasuke angry and slip up, and the smug grin combined with his increasingly grating words succeeded in angering off the Uchiha. What made it worse was that he reacted to strikes made by Sasuke on pure instinct as if he could predict them, all while looking completely at ease during the battle. It was unnatural.

His skill at prediction shouldn't even be possible without a Sharingan or something to read an opponents actions. It was almost effortless on his part, like he was just training a genin fresh out of the academy like Kakashi had so many years ago. It was just another ho-hum day for the idiot even when the two were in a duel to the death. Naruto definitely wasn't an Uchiha, nor did he have exactly amazing intelligence...Or did he?  
Sasuke hadn't payed attention to Naruto much since he'd left the village. He had heard of the moron growing stronger when he fought and defeated Pain. But Naruto always gained raw power, never finesse or precise control. It wasn't like him to be gaining a quiet warrior focus, much less such skill with a blade. For all Sasuke knew Naruto could just actually be this good, but what the hell was he using!?

Sasuke's eyes anticipated a sudden uppercut, and he quickly sidestepped away from Naruto's left fist aimed at his jaw so that it hit nothing but the rain drops. But then he noticed Namikaze at his right side, swinging in a smooth arc aimed at his chest as it whistled with an unsettling glee. Sasuke leaned back with his considerable flexibility so that the sword would slice only air.

But as it swung forth the blade seemed to flicker and shimmer, distorting the air around it for a single moment, just long enough for Sasuke to feel something cutting his skin, followed closely by the familiar wetness of warm blood seeping out of an open wound.

Just as quickly Naruto dashed to the side as a black &amp; orange blur, pulled back his blade, and stabbed it at Sasuke's head with lightning speed. The blade whistled during its attack, a straightforward strike that Sasuke dodged by ducking clean under, only to find himself moving straight into Naruto's knee with a painful **wham** of the hard bone hitting his stomach.

"Ack!"

Sasuke's vision flickered with pain as the blow knocked the wind out of him. The knee dug itself deep into his stomach, bending his body with the sudden impact. Then Naruto's fist slammed into the Uchiha's jaw like an iron mallet and knocked him through the air to slam into the giant Uchiha clan symbol on the wall.

His body utterly shattered the surface of the wall and the clan symbol on it, before he fell from the human-shaped indent down onto his chair. The wet stone crumpled and cracked under his weight, leaving the shinobi in a small lump of pained aches. With the rain still falling, Sasuke cursed himself for being hit so easily by an idiot.

"You...Bastard." He groaned.

The Uchiha pushed himself up from the chair, his arms ached as he rose and tried to catch his breath. Using Kusanagi as a makeshift cane he took a moment to check his wounds. His sleeves were torn and stained with blood, dozens of cuts that had somehow slipped through his defenses in such a short time. How had he not noticed them? Naruto couldn't have been moving that fast to make these cuts, or could he? The movements he had were odd and bizarre. His swordplay was an unorthodox style that Sasuke had never seen before. The movements were unpredictable and were both reactionary and, both aggressive and patient in its execution.

He had somehow bypassed the visual prowess of the Uchiha with sheer skill and an insufferably thick skull. He could certainly counter genjutsu with the influence of a third party like the fox, but Sasuke didn't know of a way to bypass the Sharingan's predictive abilities aside from being significantly faster than the user, and Naruto wasn't moving anywhere near fast enough to do that, at least not yet. He just seemed to slip up the eye's abilities with an unknown skill. This wasn't possible. This simply wasn't possible.

"How...Are you...Doing this?" He panted out.

With a deathly, emotionless stare Naruto readied his blade with a smoothly placed stance. He bent his knees, holding Namikaze in a relaxed grip so that the very tip of its blade rested on the ground. The Naruto that Sasuke once knew would've touted that he'd never lose before becoming Hokage, or that he'd bring Sasuke back to Konoha without fail. But now...

Naruto just smirked, looking at Sasuke with faint contempt and...Pity.

"How Sasuke?" It was a statement born of empathy and yet defiance of the Uchiha's ambitions. Naruto took a long slow breath, and his eyes flashed red, a bit of Kurama's power seeping through him and fueling his strength.

"Because I'm not fighting for just myself. I got something more important than a grudge."

With those words spat in his face, Sasuke screamed in pure anger. A yell of rage and hatred against the world and all the people who would dare keep him from his right for revenge. This moron, this failure of a ninja looked down on him and the suffering of his clan as a grudge!? He made a mockery of everything Sasuke fought tooth and nail for, and thought he could win!?

"NARUTO!" Sasuke screamed. His body started to burn with a flare of his dark chakra, energy so foul that it had rivaled even Madara's own eldritch aura. "When I plunge Kusanagi through your chest, I'll leave your corpse to burn until there's nothing left to bury!"

Sasuke pushed past his wounds, sheathed his blade with quick speed, back-flipped up onto the wall he dented moments before, and reached into his jacket as he jumped off and soared up high into the air. Sasuke pivoted so that he was looking straight at Naruto the whole time, making sure he didn't get the drop on him again.

The blond shinobi remained still, merely watching Sasuke's movements like a hawk. The Uchiha pulled out a few dozen kunai, and threw them with lethal precision. The deadly projectiles raced through the air, ready to stab and slice Naruto into a bloody mess.

As if on cue, Naruto lazily swatted with his sword, creating another enormous gust of wind that scattered the rain and mist around him with a deafening boom. The blast swatted aside the kunais off-course, landing well away from Naruto and embedding themselves in the stone surface with considerable force. But the wind didn't stop there, it kept rocketing forth. The wall was aimed right at Sasuke and primed to blast him into the upper atmosphere. But Sasuke had other ideas.

The many chakra elements had all their strengths and weaknesses, and he possessed the one that would obliterate Naruto' wind, the chakra nature his clan was most known for. He brought his hands together to form several hand seals, took a deep breath, and...

"Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!"

Sasuke released from his mouth a tremendous stream of flames that collected and molded into a ball of fire, powerful enough to completely ignore the intense downpour, strong enough to melt iron with its intense heat and ruthless flames, born of Sasuke's hatred of the world and his opponent. The idiot would burn until there was nothing left but ash.

Naruto dashed along the rooftop as the fireball came rushing down at him. He moved with such speed that he completely scattered the sizable puddles in his wake as he ran towards the now battered Uchiha throne. The fire was far too hot to deflect at close range. Even if he only used his sword the fires heat alone could roast him in an instant. So he had to get creative.

Naruto snickered as he flipped up and onto the top of the wall bearing the broken Uchiha crest. This would be a situation to fight fire with fire. He took a deep breath and formed several hand signals of his own as he channeled one of Kurama's more recently discovered abilities. His eyes flashed blood red, and the power burned within him as he opened his mouth.

"Fire Style: Great Fire Destruction!"

Sasuke flinched. The idiot know fire jutsu!?

There was a bright red glow around Naruto's face, before he shot forth a stream of furious red-hot flames with jet-like thrust and speed. The massive flamethrower evaporated the rain drops around it before they even made contact with the jutsu. The jutsu was smaller than Sasuke's fireball, but it was far more focused &amp; concentrated with greater piercing power. The two techniques flew at each other, leaving heavy trails of sparks in their wake that scattered around the battlefield before colliding with an explosive impact.

The fireball was warped and pushed in on itself against the incredible thrust of the flamethrower, yet was not moved back in the slightest. The two attacks kept pushing against each other as Naruto endeavored to stop Sasuke's attack dead in its tracks. The jutsus lit up the whole roof of the Uchiha hideout in a red and orange glow that appeared bright as day. The puddles and rain drops all flashed with the radiant light forming a constantly shifting chandelier of orange light that was visible for miles through the pouring rain.

Sasuke's fireball continued to push against Naruto's jutsu, and the Uchiha looked on with a grin in his eyes, confident that his mastery of fire would overwhelm Naruto's curious yet pitiful imitation of skill. But that smirk instantly faded when his Great Fireball started to expand and bulge. The formerly spherical shape started warping into a randomly shifting mass of fire. The two jutsus were merging with each other! The fire grew and distorted in its shape as Naruto continued pushing against the Sasuke's attack. He had slowed it down, now he just needed to use this to his advantage.

With a huge surge of chakra Naruto increased the thrust of his flamethrower, sending a new pulse of energy through it. The swell in chakra actually created a bulge in his stream of flames that easily tripled its power, roaring with the intensity of hellfire. The swell made contact with Sasuke's fireball, and just like that the unstoppable force and the immovable object met their ultimate conclusion; a massive explosion of chakra-infused fire.

The two opposing jutsus collapsed in on each other and released all their pent up energy in a deafening blast. The heat from the explosion evaporated the puddles on the roof and and the nearby rainfall in an instant, so that there was an ever so brief reprieve from the storm. But the flames swiftly died down and were met by yet more rain. The expected ball of smoke instead became a great cloud of steam in the downpour, heavy with chakra from both shinobi, and it spread quickly as more and more sparks were reduced to hot vapor.

The chakra-laden steam obscured Sasuke's sight, especially with his Sharingan. All he could see was a cloud that concealed Naruto's location. He could strike from any direction and Sasuke wouldn't see him coming.  
The only sounds in the air were the heavy pour of rain and the faint hiss of the steam. Saskue looked in all directions, and listened for the slightest indication of the moron's approach. Naruto was making him stew, letting the pressure mount as he waited for a chance to strike. The moron would die before he got the chance.  
Suddenly a small patch of the steam seemed to grow thin, parting ever so slightly in front of Sasuke.

Without warning Naruto burst through the mist, practically flying at Sasuke and roaring like the great beast sealed within him. He flew so fast that before Sasuke had time to jump to safety, Naruto was mere feet away from him. Naruto drew back a chakra-infused fist to ready a technique, yet another gift from Sakura.

"Cherry Blossom Impact!"

Sasuke could discern a feral snarl on Naruto's face before he had to leap for his life out of the jinchuuriki's path. The fist swung through empty air just as Sasuke made clear escape to the opposite tower while Naruto's strike slammed into the stone, his strength breaching the tower and burying his entire forearm into the stone. With earth-shattering force stone chunks the size of houses broke off from the shock wave of Naruto's punch, crashing down through the roof below with their massive bulk. Chakra-enhanced strength tended to shatter everything in its path.

Naruto looked back as Sasuke flew through the air onto the opposite tower, using chakra channeled to his feet for adhesion to the wall. Naruto quickly ripped his arm out of the newly made hole, drawing out smaller bits of stone. Namikaze sprung forth from his arm-sheath while Sasuke readied Kusanagi.

Naruto and Sasuke kicked off the walls with swords in hand, flying through the air. Each focused on the fight and were ready to end it at a moment's notice. The blades clashed with each other, coated with their wielders chakra natures, wind against lightning in a absolute maelstrom of static and harsh air currents that lasted for a split second when the blades hit, and dissipating instantly when they parted as shinobi landed on the opposite towers, only to dart back again with an even larger burst of power that shook the entire building with the shockwave. Back and forth they flew, colliding with ever-increasing force that shook the entire building. Force that was slowly making it's way down to the earth itself and up into the sky, rumbling like the lightning overhead.

The battle was growing fiercer by the second. Each strike and parry left a mark in the hideout. Fire from both combatants scorched the stone, slashes cut through rock like butter, kicks and punches shattered the reinforced walls. Neither Naruto nor Sasuke were holding back anymore, they were fighting with their resolves fueling every action. Each time they collided, their wills pushed against each other, each one unable to conquer the opposite. Before this was over, the earth itself would be reeling from the battle.

* * *

**End of Part 2**

**Authors Note:** Now I know what you're thinking. "HOW THE HELL DOES NARUTO KNOW FIRE JUTSU?!" Well, the answer is that this is my own version of Naruto from one of my other stories. He does have more powers (along with some freaking competence for once) and is, hopefully, a more mentally sound person. This version is a lot more mature after a small change I made in Shippuden for my story. It always seemed strange to me that, even with a crapton of training, Naruto barely won against Pain.  
His Sage Mode that was hyped so much is badass, but he only won that fight because he went berserk when Hinata got seriously wounded, and it seemed odd he would just move on with a smile when he almost got killed. Pain, in that form(s), wasn't even the strongest Akatsuki member. So in my story, he's all "HOLY SHIT ONE GUY FLATTENED MY HOME! GOD KNOWS WHAT THE REST OF THESE AKATSUKI COULD DO! IMMA GO ON A ROADTRIP AND TRAIN!" So he does that, while the Akatsuki swell the Zetsu army and regroups after Pain was killed. For two years Naruto trains to get stronger, master Sage Mode, and learn a few other tricks I won't spoil here.

**Sidenote:** I don't hate NxH. I think they're adorable together even if the manga didn't give them the best development in Shippuden. She's nice, courageous, and a character I do like. If you guys want an AMAAAZING NxH story, look up Mattwilson83 on deviantart. He's got a fan manga that's like 25 volumes long, and it's great, seriously.  
I'll be stating my opinion on the manga's ending at the end of this story. I will say that I hate Sasuke, for how he turned out and tried to kill anyone in his way. His powers are cool at least, and I love his voice actor (Shiro ftw), but F #! the bastard.

Fingers crossed the movie will be entertaining at least.


	3. Part 3: Embers & Snowflakes

Author's Note: Soooo yeah. It's been a fair bit longer since my last chapter update in this story. There's a funny story behind that. Originally there was a longer flashback segment in what would be chapter 3. But, I ended up seeing that this flashback didn't really fit that well from Naruto's perspective really. So this lead to an extensive rewrite and framing to fit it into the chapter here. After that I decided it could use a little action, a little fighting for tomorrow as it were, hehe. So this resulted in the longest chapter so far.

Also, for any NaruHina fans who might be reading this, I added a little something. I don't hate the pairing by any means. Honestly I wanted to go about the story without addressing it, to just focus more on the dynamic between Naruto and Sasuke. But the more I wrote the worse it felt to not at least mention NaruHina in some capacity. I can't say this will be satisfying to a fan of NaruHina, only that I felt that even if the story doesn't end up with that pairing, it doesn't mean the two of them can't have a happy ending, especially at the end.

Oops I've said too much. READ ON! READ ON! R&amp;R :)

* * *

In the dense forests scattered throughout the Fire Country, the affects of the battle at the Uchiha hideout were just beginning to be felt. The storm clouds were growing more rowdy as the evening went on, leaving the people and animals throughout the nation greatly worried. Even for a country that was crammed full of shinobi, this weather was beyond ordinary. The cloudy night had looked to be yet another quiet one for the Fire Country only a few hours ago, save for the rain that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Yet this once quiet night was now beset by heavy storm clouds that looked like they would come crashing down on the nation at any second.

But it wasn't the weather that was truly alarming, it was something far more subtle, or at least it was subtle for the time being. There was a tension in the air, and it was growing more and more tense by the second. It was good thing then, that most of the villagers who lived in the Fire Country couldn't sense chakra, this tension, as well as shinobi could. Shinobi were trained from their first days in the academy to learn chakra sensing, a vital skill for detecting enemies and finding targets she had been practicing since child-hood. As with anything in school, there were some who weren't very good at it, and those who took to the lessons so skillfully that they seemed almost unnaturally talented, like child prodigies.

"Yo, Tadao, can you feel anything?"

"Brother, could you actually try being precise for once? Your diction is awful."

"Ugh, can you feel anything weird with this storm? You prick."

Though, most of the people gathered here were definitely not prodigies.

"I told you, I can only feel a little chakra in the air." Tadao sighed. "It's a bit higher than normal, but it's not enough to elicit panic you hollow-skulled moron. I'm not surprised you cant feel anything though. You're so blind Naoto, that you'd try climbing a glass fence just to see the other side."

Tadao took a drink from his flask as the rest of their troop enjoyed a good laugh at their leaders expense. One look from the burly Naoto however silenced all gathered so that Tadao was the only one laughing. He might be able to get away poking fun at his own brother, but the underlings knew better than to provoke their leader, even with jokes.

Though any source of laughter was greatly appreciated, even if it came at the expense of their skulls being smashed by the dull side of Naoto's broad zanbatō. Given their current shelter of a few thick trees in a steadily increasing rain, they'd do almost anything to lighten the mood. Their fire was the only real source of warmth out here, and it was only kept alive by the fire jutsus provided by Naoto.

The gang was shivering even with their blankets draped over their shoulders. One of them turned to Naoto, shaking in his boots the whole time. "Yo boss, can you turn up the heat a bit? We ain't exactly toasty in this weather."

But it was Tadao, the younger of the two, who spoke. "If you want us to get detected by shinobi patrols Mako, my brother will be happy to oblige your request. Of course, you'd have to talk to Hakushi first."  
Tadao's long and messy hair usually concealed his face, but even in this dim light the twenty men gathered could see Tadao's savage grin. He raised his infamously deadly knife, nicknamed white death, which sported an unnaturally shiny and pure white blade that glistened even at this late hour. Most of the group were smart enough to to press the issue any further, but there were a few who lacked significantly more brain cells than the rest.

"Come on Tadao, are you scared!?" One of them bellowed, rising along with three others who were just as angry with their situation. "We can take a few measly shinobi! Those jerks wouldn't know what hit them when they came across us, so why should we be hiding in the woods like a bunch of mice!?"

The little goon, for that was his official rank in the sophisticated gang hierarchy, roused rumblings of protest in his fellows, many of whom were sick of their endless camping in dark caves and wet marshes.

"We're supposed to be raiding villages and taking whatever the hell we want! Am I right boys, or am I right?"

"Yeah!"

"Damn straight!"

The other little goons were in hearty agreement even as some of them could barely speak through their chattering teeth.

"Ya see? We want to get some proper booty, and it'd be ours for the taking! The shinobi are focused only on rebuilding as it is, so it's perfect for us to slip in and out with some 'relocated property' if you catch my meaning."

"You're all a bunch of morons." Naoto said, chomping off a hunk of dear meat from his kunai. "If all them shinobi are focused on repair work, every single one of them are gonna be inside their villages. Boys, if you want to go raid a village armed to the teeth with shinobi, be my guest." Naoto gripped the handle of the gigantic sword resting on his shoulder.

"But if you morons enjoy actually living in this group, you'd best come up with ideas that don't get us detected by shinobi, otherwise Tadao's gonna be cleaning you up with a mop. I tried going up against a child shinobi, before me and my squirt of a brother here gathered you bunch of idiots, and let me tell you that even a pipsqueak shinobi was enough to give me this."

Naoto pulled back his jacket sleeve to reveal his entire arm to the group. They knew Naoto was a certified killer, but they never suspected he'd have such a scar from a child. His forearm was peppered with giant scratches from the claws of what could easily be mistaken for a bear under any other circumstance. They were old scars too, pure white on his arm, yet no less menacing for it. The little goons were shocked. Their leader had been mauled by a damned kid.

The little goon who had spoken up, Mako, could barely believe what he was seeing. "Boss, you're telling us that a single kid gave you all those cuts?"

Naoto shrugged, sipping at his flask while Tadao spoke to the group.

"Damn straight. The kid couldn't have been more than five and a half feet tall, so he was probably twelve, thirteen maybe. He was sure as hell annoying. The brat kept talking about how he'd become Hokage some day." Tadao and the group had a good chuckle. "Then when I said he was a powerless welp who couldn't protect a damn thing, he just went berserk on us and gave Naoto those little scratches you see. So I imagine you dopes can see why we shouldn't be raiding a village where the kids can do **that** to a person."

Naoto's cuts and Tadao's words eventually brought the gang to a grumpy silence. Naoto was their leader, a stone cold killer and devastating fighter. But if he had gotten that many cuts from a shinobi kid, they all begrudgingly agreed that when, compared to fighting the Cherry Blossom Juggernaut, the Copy Ninja, or Kami forbid the Orange Fire Shadow, taking a damp nap in a forest was a walk in the park, so to speak. Though, the little goon, Mako, still wasn't happy with their lot.

"Just kind of wish we had somebody to do." he grumbled. "I joined up for the pay, not to huddle in a wet forest."

"Man, shut up before we make you eat mud again." another guy responded, earning more laughter from the gang as they took a good riff on one of the little guys, as was tradition when inducting new people into the group. When fresh meat arrived, they'd pound on it until it was beaten into a brutal brick of flesh capable of fighting and stealing for them. They could take utter wimps and make them true criminals. Plus it gave them some source of entertainment at seeing the newbies squirm.

For them it was a quiet night at least, marred only by the rain and the winds. Soon the storm would pass and they'd be free to travel again, waiting until the right moment to strike against a village and plunder just like they used to. Their laughter filled the air as Naoto and Tadao told stories of their first heists years ago, marveling the men with tales of cleverness, robberies, and bloody combat.

They were so filled with merriment that none of them heard the splashes of puddles as footsteps came closer and closer to them. Slowly, but surely they were getting nearer to the campfire, relaxed and steady even in the pouring rain.

"So uh boss, you think Konoha's got any babes in it?" A "medium goon" with brass knuckles at his side spoke as their campfire crackled in the cold night.

**Splat.**

Naoto nodded. "Of course they do, some of the finest beauties in all the Great Nations. Though you'd want to be careful about who you go after, trust me. It's a real toss up between a beauty and a deadly damsel over there. I remember seeing this pink-haired beauty a while back, absolutely drop-dead gorgeous, no question. I had her right in the bag."

"Until you challenged her to arm-wrestling," Tadao added, "and she beat your entire body with one damn arm!" Tadao's speaking ability fell apart as he broke down into hysterical laughter, almost falling off his log. "She flipped you through the table without even looking at you! That was rich!"

**Slosh.**

"Keep talking like that and I'll break your arm Tadao." Naoto snarled, before looking back at his men. "Then I learned that the bitch was a goddamned kunoichi, that's a female shinobi, and that just sealed the deal. She wasn't no dame that's for sure, just another stone cold killer with a god complex. If I ever get my hands on that cheating girl ever again. . ."

"Was she really that bad boss?" the little goon asked. "Seems a bit over the top."

"Damn straight she was that bad. She smashed my beer and walked away laughing! Me! When I so kindly graced that broad with my presence! I swear, that girl wouldn't put out for a supermodel. Stuck up prude." Naoto grumbled, drinking deeply from his sake.

**Splash!**

"Or maybe she found you a disgusting pig not worth her time."

Suddenly a new voice spoke out from nearby the gang's campfire, startling the little goons and Tadao with the arrival of some mysterious visitor. The majority of the group scrambled to their feet in a frenzy. Some grabbed clubs, others axes and swords. The little goon reached for his kusarigama, a sickle attached to a long and durable chain.

"Shit!" Naoto grabbed his zanbatō and rose to his full height, easily towering over the rest of his gang. "Tadao, why didn't you detect her!? You're freaking useless!"

Tadao flipped back onto his feet, twirling his knife into a backhand grip as he looked at where the voice came from. "I told you I'm not a goddamn sensor shinobi you numbskull! If I suddenly gain that skill I will happily let you know."

Naoto's attention diverted from the sudden arrival back to his talkative brother. "God you can't detect any weird weather, you can't keep an eye out for people, why do I even keep you around!? I know it's not because of your cooking!"

Suddenly the person, bathed in shadow of the trees, spoke again.

"Oh be nice to your brother, even if he was a sensor type he wouldn't be able to find me." The voice sounded clearer as the footsteps came closer to the campfire, sounding relaxed even at the sight of twenty men.

Mako kept his weapon at the ready as the person came closer. "Is that because you don't have any real chakra?" he asked, hoping against logic that this was just an overly confident villager with good acting skills. But his hopes were extinguished when the voice sighed.  
The stranger was either annoyed or very tired, yet that sigh filled Mako and more than a few of his comrades with a deep sense of dread that rooted itself in their minds. It only grew worse as the figure stepped closer.

"No, kid. It's because if I don't want to be found, you guys wouldn't ever be able to find me, even if you were **all** sensor types."

"Oh." Mako said. He suddenly felt a deep sinking feeling.

"Yup." the voice chirped. Slowly, the visitor stepped out of the shadows, revealing all but her face.

"Trust me boys, that girl didn't give your boss here a second thought even as she broke the table with his body. This guy wouldn't be able to get a date if his life depended on it. Now I suggest you stop insulting that girl before you do something you'll regret."

Into the light of the fireplace stepped pitch-black combat boots, scattering the deep puddle into muddy drops. The boots reached up to just below the person's knees, and were undoubtedly designed for combat given the straps and round shoe tips, both of which were decorated with patterns of flower petals that were a slightly lighter black than the boots themselves. They looked both dangerously utilitarian and surprisingly stylish.

The woman wore pants just as black as her boots. The pants themselves looked simple enough, but there was a dark gray holster on the right leg that was definitely not something a mere villager would have. It clung to the leg with two large straps, and it was something none of the gang recognized. It was too big and long to be a mere kunai holster, too small and of the wrong shape to hold a sword. But none of them could see what it housed, because the woman's long jacket concealed the cargo as a faint breeze fluttered the ends that reached to her ankles.

She wore a worryingly elaborate belt that had several small compartments, and a dark green flack jacket over an untucked red shirt, both of which were slightly unzipped, making a small silver necklace and oval locket visible to the gang.

What stood out the most to the gang however, was her jacket. It looked very heavy at first glance, but it billowed in the wind like it weighed almost nothing at all. It was a deep dark pink, almost magenta jacket with black borders running along the long coat tail, buttons, collar, sleeve ends, and the gigantic hood that was pulled up over her forehead, which was casting an unnatural shadow over her eyes so that only her nose and mouth were visible to the gang.

She scanned the gang from left to right, carefully looking over every single guy. Most of the gang were either scared or too startled to think of anything to do. But luckily Naoto, being very experienced with combat and scare tactics, had not been phased by this woman's arrival, and in fact was very mad that someone had the sheer gall to insult him, of all people.

"Listen lady, I don't know who you think you are, but I don't take kindly to be called a. . .What was it she called me brother?"

Tadao sighed. "She called you a disgusting pig."

"Yeah, I don't like-"

"Whom wasn't worth her time." Tadao whispered to himself, chuckling.

"-people insulting my good name because of one stubborn broad." he frowned. "But as you're lucky to find, I'm in a decent mood because of the scare you gave my guys. Normally only I can frighten them that bad." Naoto raised his sword, aiming the point at the woman. "But I get the sense that you're all talk and no walk, and I'd rather not hurt someone who could prove useful."

"Oh?" she asked. Mako and Tadao could see she was completely at ease here. But the problem was that Naoto couldn't, or wouldn't take that as a warning.

"Yeah girl. I'm guessing you know the name of that broad who dared to make me look like a damned idiot. So here's my offer, and the part where you can be useful. All you have to do is tell me her name, and you get to go home without any bruises. Now how does that sound?"

"Hmm." The stranger remained still as her jacket flapped in the wind.

"How about. . ." Her face wrinkled, like there was a foul smell in the air, and then it fell blank as she responded. "No."

The gang that had been whispering amongst themselves suddenly fell silent. They looked at each other, sharing looks of shock with each other that somebody, anybody, had just said no to their boss. That almost never happened, and when it did, the person who said it was never long for this world, even if it was one of them. If Naoto wanted an extra blanket, he would get it regardless of whom would be left in the cold. If he wanted more meat, someone would have to give up their own food unless one of them wanted to make friends with his fists. The only person who had turned down Naoto was a chef, and that man ended up. . .Beside himself. That a villager was doing it now, and talking to him like a child was something none of them had ever seen, and they couldn't even begin to picture what Naoto was going to do.

Naoto himself seemed to be stuck in a negative feedback loop, as would occasionally happen when he was especially enraged. First he'd look at the stranger with grinding teeth and veins popping out of his forehead, then at his zanbato with a sadistic grin, no doubt thinking of the many different ways he could separate a human body into pieces that were multiples of three.

It was rather strange for the gang to watch, and only Tadao retained his composure despite seeing his brother in such a state. So he strolled up beside the big idiot, twirling his knife around with a weary sigh.

"Listen lady, my brother tends to go over the top when trying to get what he wants." Tadao knocked on his brother's head, to no affect. "While he's kind of dim, he will cut through anyone and anything to get whatever he wants. I'm sick of having to clean up after his messes, so why don't you just give us a damned name? I'd rather not stain Hakushi with blood tonight." Tadao held up his knife in a backhand grip, looking at the stranger with a meaningful smirk.

The woman remained still, and the gang looked at her with growing smirks at hearing Tadao's words. This stranger was just taunting them. She had no real strength, at least not enough to tackle a group like them. She had to be all talk and no walk. She only looked tough. In fact, to them, she looked like she had some valuable loot on her. The boots, the belt, the flak jacket, and especially that coat she wore. It looked so otherworldly to them because it was not like any garment they had ever seen. Something about the cloth seemed alien and yet amazing to them all. It had to be expensive, definitely something they could trade for any number of things. Food, weapons, clothes, anything they wanted could be theirs if they could get that coat.

The gang was so enraptured by thoughts of getting crazy loot that they didn't notice the woman's feet shifting on the ground, or notice her fists clenching. They certainly didn't hear the knuckles cracking. But they did notice when she breathed in deep, and let out a long, tired exhale. She slid her hands into her black jacket pockets. A small gesture, but one that got their attention.

"Boys," she said. "I've had a very emotional week. My best friend has had a nasty cold I can't fix, my boyfriend ran off on a mission while making me promise to stay behind, and I've been eating nothing but ramen since he left." Tadao could swear he saw the woman's frown twitch as she spoke.

"I've been taking double shifts at the hospital and breaking Kami knows how many training dummies because I was trying, **trying, **to calm down. But then my boss told me to 'go for a walk and try to clear my head without causing collateral damage' and I've had nothing to do all night except run around in this storm. But as luck would have it, I know a perfect way to blow off steam."

"And what would that be?" Tadao asked.

"Teaching." she responded, earning a raised eyebrow from both brothers, Naoto having regained his senses with a slap upside his head from Tadao.

The woman meanwhile, dug her boot underneath a nearby rock the size of her fist.

"Let me explain." she said. "I have a day job, but I also like to teach others. I normally instruct hospital interns on reattaching limbs and removing poisons and such, but I also teach a literature class in this little academy back home. It's very enjoyable. So here's a little paraphrased quote for all of you to think about, it's one of my favorites." She glanced at the ground, where her foot lightly dislodged the rock. Then she looked back at the slowly approaching gang.

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." she said. "Do any of you bakas know what that means?"

Everyone in the gang aside from Tadao and Mako looked at each other for answers, found none, and glared back at the woman when none of them could figure it out. As if she had expected it, the woman gave a tiny smirk.

"Then let's go to school."

Suddenly, her boot flicked the rock straight up into the air. The gang members were briefly distracted by the stunt, and watched the rock's flight path with great interest. It spun over and over as it reached the top of its path, then fell straight back down.

But it never touched the ground, because the woman's other leg shot out to kick the rock with perfect timing. It flew like a kunai to collide with a goons forehead, shattering to tiny bits, scattering shards all around the campsite.

The goons eyes went blank, and he fell back onto the muddy ground.

The gang all looked at their fallen comrade as their jaws dropped.

The woman strolled on the muddy ground, still looking very relaxed. Her right hand swept back her long jacket, revealing the cargo stored within her holster, something none of them expected. There were two short, round metal bars. The ends had were painted a thick ring of bright silver, and the bodies were a shining deep red that glistened in the campfire's glow. She took one in each hand as she walked, twirling them around her fingers.

"You should all know that it's bad manners to hit a lady." The woman flicked her wrists, extended the rods to three times their length with several loud clanks. She rotated her wrists several time as she walked forward, standing tall and fearless in front of the entire gang, and then she smirked.

"So the only question is, can you?"

A large and tall goon rushed up to her, swinging his gigantic sledgehammer in a horizontal arc aimed at her rib cage. Just as quickly, the woman struck right between the weapon's head and long handle with her weapon. The attack was seemingly light, but that tiny blow rattled the entire weapon with terrible force, as well as the hands of the goon wielding it. In the intense shaking, he lost control of his swing.  
The woman quickly leaned back out of the path of the weapon, which flew out the attacker's hands. Unfortunately it found itself crashing into three of their group. One was hit by the head itself, sending him flying into a tree, shattering the bark as he bounced off it. The hammer kept going to hit the other two, striking them both with the long handle, trapping them both underneath the crushing weight of the weapon, which knocked the wind out of them both.

"Rargh!" The large goon swung at the attacker's neck, but her rod struck at his inner elbow to knock him off balance. The same rod slammed into the right side of his head, then struck at his nose with a sickening crack. Then her knee hit his stomach, knocking him back several feet to bash aside five more goons who had been charging at the attacker, like they were bowling pins in his way. Before he came to a complete stop, the woman blurred with insane speed, and swung both rods into his rib cage. His body bent around where the weapons hit like a mass of dough, and when the kinetic energy took its affect, he was sent spinning through the air to crash on top of the two men pinned under his own hammer.

The woman looked at the five men she had dispatched with a hint of amusement on her face, and scanned the remaining seventeen men. She smirked as Tadao whistled for the five goons who had been knocked down to attack.

They quickly scrambled to their feet and charged her, roaring and whooping as they ran.

The woman ducked under a club swing, bending over to backflip and swing her foot up into the attackers jaw, knocking him on his ass in a pained heap, landing on top of a friend who had been trying to attack with his ornate brass knuckles.

Another goon came rushing with a knife almost as large as Tadao's, aiming at the woman's shoulder. But she deflected the thrust with her forearm. To the goons shock, not one thread tore as his knife passed alongside her arm. The sudden redirection caused him to lose his grip so that the knife slid out of his hand. Then he found his head being beaten on both sides in a flurry of rod strikes until the woman's fist slammed into his jaw, knocking him to the ground.

The goon who had been pinned under his club-swinging compatriot finally managed to get free, and attacked with his brass knuckles as he screamed.

"Will you stop knocking my buddies on top of me!?" he shouted. With a mighty roar he swung at her chest, only to collide with the woman's own fist. There was a horrid metal moan when they hit. His prized brass knuckles were bent into the shape of a banana under the force of her punch, creaking with horrid strain.  
The blow injured his entire arm, and he yelped with the sudden pain, and his knees buckled.

The woman stepped back for a moment, looking him over. With a little shrug, she twirled her stick in hand, and lightly bonked him on the head so that he fell back on top of the friend he had been previously pinned under.

Before the defeated goon could even start dreaming, the two remaining men of "squad 2" attacked the woman from both sides, zipping to her right and left. The "Lightning Strikers," twins who sported inexplicably natural purple mohawks were two of the fastest fighters in the gang, and they lived up to that name by attacking in a flurry of blades. The one on the woman's right swung with his black wakizashis, while the one of the left stabbed and slashed with his twin sai. Nothing had yet survived their onslaught.

But the woman moved just as fast, if not faster than them both combined. She turned from one to the other, rotating to knock back or deflect the strikes of one before spinning to handle the other. The gang thought it was something of a stalemate, but they were proven wrong when the sai twin lunged at her, overextending himself into the reach of her elbow, which slammed into his face, instantly knocking him out.  
The woman kicked at the other twin's stomach to knock him back while she sheathed her escrima sticks into two small open pockets just beneath the back of her giant hood, the two weapons shortening seemingly automatically.

She moved so fast that she did both before the sai brother had even hit the ground. Then she grabbed both of his arms. The other brother came back at her swinging with his short swords, while she came back at him with his own brother. The unconscious brother's leg dragged along the mud before his entire body slammed into his twin, sending him flying to crash through the tree branches and off into the night. For a second the gang was distracted to see their comrade flying off like a ragdoll, before his cries faded out with distance.

The woman stood with an unconscious body in her arms around a circle of knocked out thugs. She looked down at the unconscious goon who had protested being left under his fellows and dropped the sai brother on top of him and the goon beneath him, leaving a triple decker pile of sleeping bakas. She gave a chuckle at the sight, then returned her attention to the rest of them so that she didn't notice the tall and slim goon who had been sneaking up on her in the chaos.

With two shivs in his hands, he crept up behind her as the gang feigned terror to keep the woman thinking she had the advantage. Moving like a shadow, the man rose above with shivs in hand ready to slice her throat. Then the woman's leg swung into a sudden back kick, hitting the goon's family jewels.

He froze up, and the gang members, even Naoto, grimaced in sympathy pain for their comrade. As if to add insult to injury, the woman then banged the back of her fist into his fast so that he crumpled onto his knees, falling to the side as he drifted off to the land of painful dreams.

The woman meanwhile had not shifted her gaze once from Naoto and Tadao's forms. She titled her head, and grinned at them all.

"Next." she said.

Tadao and Naoto then exchanged an angry look. "Everyone?" Tadao asked.

"Everyone." Naoto responded. "Boys, lets show this chick how it's done!"

Despite their initial fear, the remaining nine goons and their two fearless leaders reached into their pockets. They all took that as the signal and likewise drew kunais and shurikens from their pockets and packs. Tadao and Naoto threw first, and were swiftly copied by their followers. Dozens of kunai and shurikens screeched as they flew and spun through the air as a veritable wall of steel and death.

The woman grabbed the bottom corner of her jacket and held it out in front of her, while also titling her head downward so that the rest of her mouth was concealed by the hood. Tadao blinked when he thought he saw the faint flickering of a blue glow around the woman's body, before the kunais and shurikens hit.

Every single one of them bounced off her jacket, or were stopped entirely and lost all momentum.

They spun through the air and fell all around her.

She was completely unharmed, and looking at them all with an annoyed frown on her lips.

She reached up to her escrima sticks, extending them to their full length again as she took up a stance. The sight of this woman filled Naoto with unbridled rage, and he roared like a grizzly bear as he held his sword high overhead, pointing it to the heavens.

"Boys, get her!"  
The entire remaining gang charged at the woman. She ran at them in response with rods held at her side. Naoto led the charge with Tadao at his right, and the ambitious little goon Mako at his left. In a dark, thick forest there was only the sounds of rain, rustling leaves, and the soft crackling of the fire to disturb the flow of combat.

Nine goons plus their two mighty leaders rushed the woman, and couldn't even scratch her. She smashed through their entire group in a blur like a well-dressed battering ram. It was as if the more enemies she had to face, the stronger and faster she became. Swords were bent into useless coils by her sticks, or simple karate chops. Clubs were shattered into splinters. Dozens of metallic clangs echoed around the campsite in the clash of steel, the twelve weapons of the gang hitting and breaking against what seemed like twenty-four weapons in the woman's own hands. The woman herself was barely recognizable as a human being. Her sheer skill and ferocity coupled with the dark pink and black blur of her coat gave her the appearance of a demon, ferocious and yet coldly focused on her prey.

One by one the members of the gang fell to her attacks. Some were simply knocked to the muddy ground when they felt a metal bar hitting their heads. Others were sent flying into and getting stuck in tree branches, or sent off into the night to scare the birds.

In the span of slightly under thirty seconds, only the little goon Mako, Tadao, and Naoto remained conscious and not sleeping in the mud or stuck in a tree. Tadao kept her busy with his own considerable knife skills, yet barely avoiding her own, just as deadly, weapons. Naoto attacked from the side, as his lack of speed would leave him a giant target to her fast and hard-hitting sticks.

Mako meanwhile, wasn't involved in the brawl. . .

Tadao rolled to the side Naoto made a low swing at the woman's legs, whom flipped back herself, landing smoothly on her feet. But then she heard the rapid clinking of metal, and a long and thin chain suddenly wrapped around her arm. Several dozen feet away, Mako strained with all his might to hold in place what felt like a mountain to him.

"Sorry lady!" he shouted.

To his surprise, the woman nodded to him, briefly changing her ruthless smirk to a kind smile.

But it didn't last long until they both heard what sounded like a roaring bear from above.

"I'm not!" Naoto bellowed from high above. The woman looked up to see him racing down at her with his zanbato overhead, his mouth wide open as he roared, aiming his sword at the woman's remaining free arm.

"Neither am I." she chuckled with a smirk. The woman shifted her head into the sword's path instead, and looked up so she was staring Naoto dead-on. The gigantic sword swung right to her forehead. Nearby stood Tadao, waiting for the inevitable kill.

But then he noticed another blue flicker on the woman's entire body, before Naoto's zanbato and her forehead collided.

There was a crack.

A loud metallic crack.

From edge to edge of Naoto's sword had a giant fracture from where it had hit the woman's head.

His sword had been injured. The woman however, was not. In fact she looked bemused with the situation. She smirked, raising her free hand up to the blade. She extended her index finger, and gave the sword a single tap.

Instantly the single crack branched out to the rest of the blade. Dozens of jagged paths born from the first. There was the faint sound of rough metal grinding against rough metal, before the sword completely shattered in Naoto's hands.

Dozens if not hundreds of tiny shards scattered around the campsite. In one second the blade Naoto was so endlessly proud of, that he had boasted of to his men despite their protests that he shut up, was reduced to a few useless shards of metal and a handle.

"No. Way." Tadao whispered. For once, he didn't have anything clever to say.

_"Daamn."_ Mako thought.

Naoto stumbled back, never once taking his eyes off the woman. His face was bright red with utter rage, yet it was tinted in pure white shock. He had attacked her with every ounce of strength in his body, using his prized sword to finally stop her and get what he wanted. For a second he had been worried he'd end up killing her and losing the intel when she moved her head. But his sword had been like a brittle hot poker hitting a titanium wall.

"You. Bitch." he growled. "You goddamn cruel bitch! No wonder your boyfriend ran off to die if you're such a heartless psychopath! He was probably glad to get away from you!"

Suddenly the air around the campfire became very cold.

Naoto suddenly felt immobilized, bound by invisible chains wrapped tightly around his entire body. Tadao felt the sensation of thousands of needles poking his body, as if hundreds of animals were scratching at him, waiting for the chance to tear him apart.

The only one who was unaffected was Mako, but he could see the reactions on his two leaders faces, and that alone was terrifying enough.

But then the woman pulsed with an aura of power.

The woman's bound hand clenched into a fist around her weapon. Her entire arm seemed to send out a burst of air born from some intense power none of the three men had imagined she had. Then with a single effort, the woman pulled her arm towards herself, shattering the chains.

Mako was briefly pulled off his feet, but fell harmlessly into the mud face first.

"Gurb bamnid." he grumbled. For a second he was buried in the wet earth, but he managed to lift himself up to see the woman again.

She stood tall before Naoto and Tadao, who stood by each other's side. Naoto had picked up one of his goons's clubs while Tadao still held his knife in hand. The woman still had her escrima sticks, which looked utterly flawless even with the intense battle they had been through. Then she twirled one of them into a backhand grip.

"Naoto, you have displayed unseeming conduct in the presence of a lady, and your teacher. Now it's time for your detention." The woman spoke slowly, seemingly polite in her tone, but with an icy glare that betrayed her calm exterior.  
She slammed the ends of the rods together. Tadao and Naoto heard a few faint clinks as she rotated the rods in opposite directions, then they clanked into place. The woman then gave the fusion a single shake, making the now combination weapon extend at both ends into a six foot staff of shining red metal decorated by several silver rings.

"I think you'll find that Himawari is very good at beating lessons into disobedient children's heads."

"Aww, did I strike a nerve?" Naoto said, sneering with all the contempt he could muster.

"Naoto you idiot," Tadao hissed. "stop talking." But Naoto only chuckled.

"Hell no, I finally touched a nerve on this maniac. Did I make you upset lady? Did-"

Suddenly, the ground around the woman's feet cracked as she bent her knees. Then she shot forward, violently upturning the ground behind her with her breakneck speed. The brothers barely had time to react before the woman was suddenly in front of them, and looking up at them with a frown that could kill.

With both hands on the center of the staff, the woman swung it upward right towards Naoto's chin. Tadao was able to move fast enough to shove his brother to safety just as the weapon swung through the air with some otherworldly hollow metallic howl.

High up above, dozens of branches were suddenly snapped off the trees.

As Naoto stumbled back, he noticed that the staff's swing had carved a deep gash into the ground. He was briefly distracted and terrified with the knowledge that one swing had done something like that just by passing by it, until he felt a hefty boot slamming into his stomach. For a second he lost all sense of where he was and what he was doing, until he felt himself slamming into a tree, shattering the bark as he fell back to the muddy ground.

While his brother struggled to get up, Tadao was fighting for his life under a barrage of swings and strikes. The staffs considerable reach kept him from effectively fighting her, and the sheer fury of her fighting style. Almost every swing or jab tore the ground without even touching it. The staff spun so fast that it was a crimson and silver blur. Each jab and swing flowed seamlessly into the next, almost like a dance.

"God you are crazy!" he gasped, ducking under a strike that probably would have shattered his skull. All he could do now was dodge and deflect, flipping back from a downward swing that shattered the ground.

"You're a slippery one aren't ya?" the woman chuckled.

Suddenly Tadao noticed a fatal whole in her technique. In her furious onslaught, the woman wasn't protecting her chest. That meant he had a potential kill blow.

"Oh just shut up," Tadao twirled his knife, briefly redirecting a jab to his head, and he lunged out at the woman's heart. "and die!"

But the woman's speed suddenly doubled. Her staff was tossed into her left hand, where it spun so fast that Tadao couldn't even tell that it was a staff anymore. It whirled to slam into his white knife, knocking it out of his hand before it even came close to her chest.

For a moment, Tadao stood in front of the woman, utterly dumbfounded. In the face of this much skill and power, he couldn't even speak.

But the woman could.

"You didn't think I'd deliberately leave such a hole in my technique did you?" Her staff was twirled overhead, then came to rest in her right arm. "Honestly, the fact you tried exploiting it so eagerly without even considering if it was a trap is kind of funny if it wasn't so sad. Have fun in detention."

The woman's staff was spun again so that she gripped the center with one hand, and one end with the other. and she swung it horizontally into Tadao's side. There was a burst of air before the blow took effect to send Tadao flying. He went flailing through the air and ended up plunging through a tree, where he stayed with his head at one end and his feet at the other.

The woman looked at her work with a satisfied grin. But of course, this wasn't over.

"You insane bitch!" Naoto screamed. "I'll kill you!" With club in hand, Naoto charged at a woman whom had single-handedly taken down his entire gang. He didn't care anymore, he just wanted this crazy woman to pay!

"Oh I'm gonna have fun with this." the woman said. With the press of a button on her staff, the end extended a short and triangular blade. She shifted her feet as she spun around, and she sliced clean through Naoto's club, leaving him with only his two fists. Even without a weapon he didn't care, and he swung his fist toward her head.

But it was caught in the woman's own hand, stopping him dead in his tracks.

"Nice try Naoto." The woman said. "But you should know better by now."

"Who," Naoto struggled under her iron grip. "who in the hell are you?!" he groaned. The woman tilted her head as if in amused with him.

"Funny you should ask." she said. With her free hand she planted her spear into the ground at her side. Her hand came up to her hood. With its touch, the strange shadow concealing her face was lifted, as if it dissolved like a genjutsu. Underneath the shadow the woman's face was fully revealed. The fair skin, the mesmerizing green eyes, the large forehead. All of it made Naoto's memory come rushing back.

"No way." he said.  
The woman's hand pulled back the hood. As it did, Naoto saw the bright pink hair in all its glory, as well as that bright red Konoha headband. When the hood fell to her back, Naoto came face to face with the woman he had been hoping to find. Now that he had found her, he suddenly realized how a paper tiger felt in front of a storm.

"Haruno." he uttered.

Sakura nodded. "Yup." The fingers on her right hand stretched with faint cracks. "I was kind of hoping that little trashing I gave you would teach you something. Like 'don't try drinking your body weight in sake,' or 'don't call a woman a skank when she turns you down.' But I suppose I should try a different approach."

The air around Sakura started to change. Naoto could see the space around her start to waver, like there was a fire on the surface of her skin and clothes. Every breath he took was labored in this now suffocating presence.

"What...What the hell are you doing!?"

The distortion in the air turned into an actual flame as Sakura sparked with power. Bright blue chakra was radiating off her body as a silent fire, a sign of the overwhelming power Naoto had encountered once before. Even Sakura's eyes seemed to glow with power, an emerald light that stared into Naoto's soul as she spoke.

"Something your mother should've done years ago." Sakura's free arm was raised up in front of her face and clenched her open palm into a fist, causing a small burst of flame as it closed. Naoto prepared for the terrible, bloody end that was sure to come at her hands.

Then Sakura smacked Naoto's cheek.

The sound of the blow was like a thunderclap, and the ground shook as a burst of air swept across the entire campsite. The campfire itself was extinguished in the wake of the strike, leaving Sakura's blue aura as the only source of illumination in the area.

Naoto was ramrod stiff, almost paralyzed where he stood. Then Sakura released her grip on his fist, and he fell to the ground, unconscious and with a giant red mark on his cheek. For a moment she looked at his pathetic form, considering the man whom she had twice disciplined.

"Poor big dope." she muttered. Maybe he'd learn something after a good long nap. If he did, then great! One less thug threatening the village, and maybe a wiser man. If not, well then it meant she had another punching bag. Either way it was a win-win for her.

Without another breath wasted, she pulled her staff from the ground. She gave her weapon a quick look over for any dents or scratches. She knew there wouldn't be any before she had even touched it, but it was always calming to check her equipment.

She gave the staff another shake from the center, collapsing it, segment by segment. With a loud series of clanks, thestaff to two escrima sticks to two small batons that would fit into her holster. she turned the weapons at the connecting point, separating them. Sakura swept back her jacket, and slid her sticks back into the holster.

"Uh...Lady?" A small voice alerted Sakura to Mako, still cowering in the mud yet somehow possessing enough courage to speak. "You calmed down now?"

Sakura couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "Mostly," Sakura chuckled as she pulled her coat around herself, strolling over to the dead campfire. She muttered something as she held out her hand, and a small ball of flames shot out from her palm, reigniting the campfire to twice it's original size. "I swear I'll kick my boyfriend into the upper atmosphere when he gets back," she picked up several logs, gingerly placing them in the campfire. "but I'm feeling a lot better now." She looked around the campsite, seeing the gang-members lying all around her, some in adorable little piles.

" I am sorry about beating up your friends." she ran her hands through her hair. "I kind of got carried away." Sakura rose from her spot and briskly walked to where Mako lay. For a moment he was more than a bit concerned about being sent into the sky himself, but the woman instead extended a hand to him.

Mako looked at her eyes, those emerald pools. Despite the absolutely terrifying power she had displayed moments before, he had the sense she wasn't that bad a person. She could probably bench press an entire heard of cows, but she seemed nice. Maybe she really was just a nice woman who happened to know how to beat an entire mob into submission.

Or maybe he was suffering from a minor head wound and his judgement was being horribly impaired by his slip into lunacy. To him either one was equally possible.

"Um, you said you taught at a hospital yes?" he asked. As if psychic, the woman gave him a quick look as she pulled him up from the mud.

"I didn't give you a concussion, I just pulled you into the mud. You'll want to wash up in the river, but you're fine." She patted him on the shoulder. He opened his mouth to speak, but she spoke before he could. "And before you ask, no, your buddies don't have any internal bleeding or broken bones. I didn't hit them that hard."

Mako looked from the woman, to the other gang members. Then he looked back at her and pointed to the sight of Tadao being stuck inside a tree trunk.

"It looked like you shattered them in seven different ways though, especially Tadao and the boss. How could you be so ferocious and yet not annihilate any of them?"

To no small amount of Mako's surprise and dread, the woman chuckled in response. "Believe me, the only time I was really angry was when Naoto started running his mouth back there. Being a shinobi requires you to learn restraint." Sakura nodded at Tadao's tree-stuck form. "He'll have one hell of a sore back, but he and Naoto are made of stronger stuff. At the most I broke their egos, probably a few nasty bruises, nothing more I can assure you. Though I am sorry about the attack, honestly."

Mako shrugged. "Lady, do you know how much crap they all give me? I'm at the bottom of their damn pecking order. At this point I was considering leaving them. Oh, thank you." At Sakura's behest she helped steady him as they strolled near to the campfire.

"I'm not sure whether to run away screaming from you or thank you."

"Ugh, please don't do the first one. I get that enough whenever I encounter you bandits, no offense." she chuckled. "Then again you probably know why that is at this point."

"Well yeah," Mako snorted. "You're that lady, the Cherry Blossom Juggernaut. One of the few who went toe-to-toe with Madara alongside the Copy Ninja, Obito, The Last Uchiha, and The Orange Fire Shadow. If the rest of us had known it was you here, I think only the boss and Tadao would be stupid enough to not go running for the hills."

Sakura smirked with pride at her nickname. "Aww thank you." She bent down and yanked up a clean blanket, swinging it around onto Mako's shoulders. "You know you're not so bad for a bandit. You shouldn't be running with thugs like these if you've got the skill to catch me off-guard like that."

Mako shrugged. "I mean, safety in numbers right?" To that, Sakura again patted him on the shoulder.

"You'd be safer, and more welcome in a village." She tapped the forehead protector on her head with a knowing smirk.

With that the woman pulled her hood back up, though her face remained visible to Mako as she rotated her neck with a satisfied sigh. She looked at him as he sat down near the campfire, giving him a polite nod. "Well this was a good way to blow off some steam, but my one hour of walking is almost up and I-"

"Wait, you've been 'walking' from Konoha for only an hour? The village is almost two days travel from here! How did you get from the center of the Fire Country to the very edge of the border in an hour!?"

"Shinobi take enthusiastic walks when we're frustrated." she said matter-of-factly.

"But that doesn't make any-"

"Very enthusiastic walks." she repeated.

Mako gave up on logic. He had seen a woman somehow defy physics and beat a gang of twenty men in less than five minutes without breaking a sweat. Once that happened, everything else the woman had said he just decided to accept, lest his brain explode from the madness that was apparently genetic in shinobis.

"With that, I bid you goodnight. I hope you find a better path Mako." Sakura turned to leave, but Mako raised his voice to get her attention.

"Wait, lady!" he said. "Where exactly did you get that coat?" Sakura slowly turned to look back at him as he spoke. "It deflected a knife, dozens of kunai and shuriken, and shattered the boss's prized sword. Where did you get something that amazing?"

"Well..." Sakura hesitated. She gave a sigh, though it wasn't icy like before. It sounded almost tired to Mako's ears, and to him it looked like the Juggernaut felt sad. Her fingers played with the soft yet durable fabric, playing with its smooth threads.

Then she gave a smirk as she shook her head. "It was a gift from my boyfriend. It's a...Special jacket you could say." Her voice dropped to a whisper that Mako couldn't hear. "Baka's still keeping me safe even when I don't need him to." She smiled at the dark pink and black garment.

"Sadly I must be off now. You have a good night now Mako." Her body once again caused the air around her to waver.

"Maybe I will." he nodded back to her. "It was both cool and terrifying to see you in action."

Sakura grinned in appreciation. Then she bent her knees, breathed in and out to focus herself, and jumped with force that cracked the ground as she flew up and over the treetops far away from the campfire and the once again dumbfounded Mako. But the sight of an untouched piece of pork removed all unpleasant thoughts from his mind.

* * *

Sakura bitterly chuckled as she flew over the trees back to Konoha. She was such a wreck tonight. She had deliberately gone looking for trouble, any sort of trouble if it meant not having to think about her baka going off to a mission he might never return from. He had promised to come back, and she would never doubt his promises.

But neither of them could help but be worried sick when the other was in the slightest danger. Sakura smiled when she remembered last year's cold sweeping through Konoha. It was a nasty cold, but nothing her terrifying immune system couldn't handle. But Naruto absolutely refused to leave her side even when she tried shooing him out. He was immune given his jinchuuriki status, and he did everything he possibly could to keep her comfortable. Heating pads, chicken soup, everything. It was a bit annoying, but also ridiculously sweet on his part.

Then again she was no better, waiting on him like his mother might have whenever he got cuts or bruises from a mission or a training session. He'd insist that he was alright, but of course she'd make sure to run tests whenever he got a cut from a rose thorn or bonked his iron-clad baka skull. He always protested her treatments, but she suspected he secretly liked be coddled. He found it really comforting.

They'd switch roles back and forth on who would be the caregiver and worrier like normal would change just couldn't help but fret over the other, and that was when they were in the same room, when they could actually do something to help. They had been through so many life and death missions, so many times when they, as children, had almost been killed. To say nothing of all the times they might have died since then. They weren't scared of the dangers of the world, but because of all the danger they had been through together, they couldn't bear even the thought of losing the other.

So now, being separated by an entire country from her baka was rather. . .Straining on her.

It was only made worse by her damned chakra sense.

It was something she considered a gift back in the academy, that could feel the chakra of someone familiar from miles away with only a bit of concentration. Tsunade had praised her in fact for her ability to detect and capture the small fauna during their training sessions years before. It definitely came in handy whenever she needed to find somebody in the village, like a criminal or a disobedient intern. Or her crazy teammates.

But tonight it felt more like a curse. It was burden she had to bear, the knowledge of where Naruto was and being unable to do anything about it. The one person she wanted back in the village walls couldn't be any farther away unless she had actually thrown him out to the horizon, and doing that might have at least helped her calm down.

Maybe.

Then she would've been able to carry him back and strap him down to their bed so he wouldn't run off again.

The people in Konoha couldn't sense chakra had some peace in ignorance, even in this very quickly rising storm. They couldn't feel the pulses of energy zapping through the air every few seconds. They couldn't sense the subtle shakes in the earth resulting from those pulses. They didn't know how dangerous tonight was, what it could lead to if Naruto couldn't. . .

No it wouldn't happen. It would not end like that. Not if she had anything to say about it, and by Kami she would say something, damnit. She'd beat the otherworldly snot out of the Grimm Reaper itself if it meant bringing the baka back to her.

Sakura shook her head as the cold air nipped fruitlessly at her coat, hopping from tree to tree, practically gliding with unmatched speed. At this rate she should be back at the village in about fourty-five minutes, give or take a minute.

She felt like beating that. So she fell back to the ground as the upward momentum of her latest jump lost its force. But instead of landing on a branch, she fell to the ground as her feet flared with powerful blue chakra. Before physics could catch up with her, she had landed on the ground and launched herself back up, causing the ground to collapse in on itself and then shatter as she went into the sky.

She flew high above the trees, high enough that she could make out Hokage Monument in the distance. She still hadn't learned Naruto's unique method of travel, but she could sure as hell come up with her own method while they trained. It was messier and wasn't exactly useful for stealth, but when she used it she covered an absolutely insane amount of ground.

Plus it was, secretly, fun to imagine she was flying while wearing a long jacket flapping in the wind. But Kami help her if Naruto ever learned that she enjoyed it the coat flapping.

Though she was more than happy to have it. Not just because it looked amazing and stopped zanbato's from scratching her forehead, but because of what it meant to her.

Despite the weather, and the fact it would inevitably get much worse, she didn't feel chilly in the slightest. Even when she was racing through the night air, she didn't feel cold at all. She had at first chalked it up to drinking so much during her late hospital shift that most of the water in her body was replaced by steaming-hot pitch black coffee. But her coat played no small part keeping her warm. On nights like these she was really happy she had gotten it.

Or rather, that Naruto had gotten it for her.

She still remembered that night as if it were yesterday, the night everything changed.

When she realized what was really important to her.

* * *

_She hated winter sometimes. It had a cruel icy touch that reached everything._

_Even when inside a roomy mall, the winter air was still biting her skin. The people in charge of this joint must have skimped out on heating no doubt. Those thoughtless jerks. It just made her so annoyed, with those guys and with herself. How did she possibly think that a single shirt, her sweater, and a red scarf, comfortable though it was, was going to keep her warm in the ice and snow? At least her pants were nice and toasty, but her arms and chest felt like ice._

_She needed to practice with fire jutsu some more. Even if it was difficult, she had to get a grasp on the element. It'd be handy in a fight, and it would keep her from getting so unbelievably cold as she was right now.__God she hated being so cold. It was making her shiver, and fouling her mood. A bit._

_Sakura gave a sigh. "Naruto, how much longer will this take? I really would like to get back home soon."_

_"Just a second Sakura." he called back, before turning back to the shop-owner, speaking in a hushed tone that Sakura could barely hear even with her trained senses. All she could catch were snippets, and even then she didn't pay them any attention._

_"What do you mean the color came out wrong?"_

_"I'm sorry sir, but that type of coloring is very tricky to get right, not to mention the cloth itself is difficult enough."_

_"Well what shade is it then!?"_

_"Baka." Sakura huffed, blowing a strand of her hair out of her face. This was taking quite a while. The reason for their visit to the mall, and this shop, didn't even make sense. She was finishing up her shift at the hospital when suddenly Naruto appeared out of the blue, once again from injuring himself during training. She had patched him up with no small amount of his swearing at being applied basic disinfectant wipes. When it was done he had suddenly asked if she wanted to go shopping._

_Naruto had said he wanted to go shopping._

_Him!_

_Naruto!_

_Shopping!_

_HIM!_

_He never shopped, least of all in a mall! He had only started getting proper groceries at a nearby store at her behest, lest he physically morph into a mass of blond hair and ramen. So why would he of all people possibly need to go to the biggest mall in Konoha, and then to Tengoku Ifuku, the most expensive clothing store in the village?_

_"Please don't let it be another pair of shades." she muttered._

_It was bad enough he was trying his hand at that thing Killer Bee did, "ropping" she thought it was called. He had picked it up soon after the war, and recently he had tried speaking in rhymes while trying on pair after pair after pair of shades, trying to see what would give him "inspiration." Hinata of all people struggled to come up with something resembling praise for his work, Rock Lee had almost attacked him the first day Naruto walked around in shades and "singing" because he thought Naruto was an imposter. But then Ino kicked the shades into oblivion, somehow on reflex._

_Sakura sighed, tightening her scarf. She still felt bad about his shades being destroyed, especially when she pictured the shades shattering into tiny shards against a wall like Naruto's dreams._

_Though his dreams had been swiftly reconstructed when he summoned an extra pair from his pocket. Some days she really hated that he knew time-space ninjutsu._

_"Ugh, I need sleep." she muttered. The cold must be making her cranky at Naruto, because he had never really done any harm with his singing. He was trying to make music back then, something she loved to herself as an amateur singer.  
When she looked past the shades, it was downright adorable to see him trying to. . Sing.  
The baka wasn't trying to annoy anybody, just practicing, and it was admirable that he kept trying. The poor whiskered dope just needed to stop belting. Having a part-time singer as a mom left Sakura with some experience at discerning people's ranges, and Naruto definitely had a bass's voice, not that horrid wailing he did._

_God she wanted to go home._

_This damned trip to the mall had been miserable, and now she was so cold and possibly delusional that she was thinking about Naruto's. . .Rapping, that was it, of all things._

_She just wanted to get out of here and go back to her place to settle down with some hot chocolate, and maybe a movie. Nice and quiet, all to herself._

_Though, she didn't know what Naruto would be doing on a night like this. He still lived in that little apartment of his in the slums. It couldn't be that well insulated even with the renovations over the years. __Would he be alright over there by himself? This had to be one of the coldest nights of the year, she was sure of it._

_Maybe she should invite him over. T_

_hat'd be nice, to hang out with her teammate and relax with some company. They could have a sleepover, just like when she was a kid. The idea was certainly appealing the more she thought about it._

_But her happy musings were frozen solid as another puff of ice-cold wind rushed through the mall. Instantly she forgot about the potential sleepover, and her mounting frustration returned. Even if the air of the shop was rather pleasant and luxurious, with its purple-tinted windows and soft violin music, it was still cold as all hell._

_But she still wanted to get home with the utmost haste. Because sweet Kami she hated how it was still so cold in here why couldn't those fat cats get up and actually do something for once in their useless existences instead of sitting around counting money dear Kami why couldn't Naruto hurry up and get this over how did he even manage to convince her to come here in the middle of winter with because she was Seriously Going To Break Something Or SOMEONE IN THIS MALL IF IT TOOK ANY-_

_"All done!" Naruto's voice suddenly rang in the shop, shaking Sakura from her tirade._

_"What?" Sakura quickly whipped around to look at the baka who had dragged her along for a "little trip." But just as her eyes fell upon him, Naruto just as quickly whipped around so that she only saw the back of his black ankle-length jacket while something was held in his arms that she couldn't see._

_"Naruto, what exactly did you get?" Sakura's eyebrow crept up her forehead._

_"Aha! Not going to tell you just yet! First you gotta close your eyes Sakura." To this she could only sigh. Another one of his little games. It was cute, admittedly that he was still able to joke around and have fun even after the war. Quite a few of their friends had become a lot more dower and serious, and it was nice he could still have a bit of fun._

_"Baka, fine." So she would indulge him for now. Sakura once again entrusted her fate to him. Kami help her if it was another pair of shades._

_"Teeheehee."_

_Naruto was giggling._

_GIGGLING!_

_Sakura could hear him tip-toeing like a child towards her while she kept her eyes tightly shut. This had better be good. Naruto stopped right in front of her. Either this was something very very good, or an elaborate prank. Either way she'd be walking home in the cold. Again. She heard the faint shifting of cloth from where Naruto no doubt stood, and then he giggled again._

_"Alright, you can open them up." __Sakura did so, and was treated to a sight that made her jaw drop like an of a pair of damn shades, there was a large coat in Naruto's arms._

_It was huge, and had a shape very similar to Naruto's own coat.  
The first thing that struck her about it was the color. Whereas Naruto's had a black body and orange borders, this one had black borders and a dark pink body, almost purple actually. There were several pockets that she could see, two halfway down at arms-length, as well as a breast pocket with a little snap on were a few more on the black inside that she could see, and no doubt several more that she couldn't see. The coat had several buttons along the chest down a good few inches slightly past the waist, as well as a zipper running the same length. The ends of the sleeves were deep black, as was the inside of the collar. The entire item was absolutely pristine. Clean, neatly organized, and brand new. It was surprisingly thin as well, but it somehow felt durable as Sakura looked at it. It looked both tough as nails, and yet soft as silk in Naruto's arms._

_Sakura stared at the coat, completely and utterly dumbfounded. "What...Wh-wh-what is this?" she stuttered, to which Naruto grinned like a fox._

_"It's a coat silly." he responded, earning an annoyed gaze from her. "Couldn't resist. It's made of the same stuff as my coat. It's a lot lighter than it looks, but believe me is it durable. This fabric could stop a knife and it wouldn't even tear. There's several secret pockets to store stuff you want hidden, including kunai actually. It doesn't stain either, which can be very handy as you know. Best of all, it's chakra sensitive!" he chirped._

_"What!?" Sakura held back a yelp. Chakra-sensitive clothing was notoriously expensive and tricky to work with as a material infused with chakra from its creation, but it had so many advantages. The cloth could be reinforced and strengthened by the wearer's chakra for defense, or even offense if using gloves or shoes. As such it could stop the injuries that would normally come from kunai or shuriken, as well as blunt force trauma. Naruto had fallen at least a dozen times when he got his black coat to test the durability, and each time he had cracked the ground yet emerged perfectly fine. That Sakura was looking at something like this was amazing. The fact that Naruto had went and purchased it, custom made no less, was shocking._

_"Yep! It's pretty amazing isn't it? Best of all, it's a present." Naruto spoke. Sakura looked at his still-grinning face, amazed._

_"Naruto. . .You got this for me?" she gasped._

_Naruto nodded in response. "Why do you think I had it at this color?" Then he pouted. "Though they made it darker than I had hoped. Lousy jerks."_

_Suddenly the clerk spoke up. "Sir, with all due respects, please get out of my store."_

_"What? Why?" Naruto asked, to which Sakura gently tapped his shoulder, pointing at her watch that read that it was now ten._

_"Oh. Right."_

_They hurried out of the store, leaving the clerk to finish up before he closed shop. As they then learned, the store was supposed to close at nine-thirty, but had been held up by, as Naruto described it, "one of the most extravagant orders they had ever gotten." Naruto gave her the details, that he had come to the store at least two months ago for a coat that would be a good fit for Sakura.  
As it turned out, he had been so specific about his choices that the store had to eventually inform him that he could order a custom coat like his own, it would just take a fair bit longer to put together. So Naruto gave them what few details he knew to a very nice old seamstress, who filled in the blanks of the coats measurements from there so that it was a perfect fit on Sakura._

_Since that day he first came in, he had checked in every week to make sure the sewing was going smoothly, which it was. He had made a modification to the coat as well, and that was that it could absorb far more chakra than was normal for a garment with chakra-sensitive material. There was always a threshold in chakra sensitive clothing that allowed only a certain amount of chakra to be pumped into the threads before it ruptured the clothing, but somehow by using Sage Mode, Naruto had augmented the very threads of the coat, something about tapping into their inner potential. The end result was that the coat could withstand any amount of chakra she could pump into it would falling apart._

_The more Naruto talked about how the people in the shop had done such a great job with the coat, the more Sakura could see that he had put just as much work into its creation as did the stores tailor. He had literally poured himself into the coat and made sure every detail of it would come out perfectly._

_"Then yesterday morning I heard back from them that the coat was done and ready for delivery. I was going to have it sent to your place, but. . ." Naruto finished his story just as they exited the mall, strolling back into the cold and snowy air._

_"You decided to invite me on a 'shopping' trip, and bring me over here as a surprise."_

_". . .I guess that's one way of putting it. Sorry."_

_"Baka. It's fine." Sakura chuckled. "No need to apologize."_

_In the past she might have punched him for doing a little trick like this, but really, there wasn't any harm done as far as she was concerned. She had walked through the blistering cold while rather under dressed, but Naruto had done his best to keep her warm by sharing his own coat with her. He had more than made up for whatever annoyance this night had caused her with the gesture, and with the fact he had gotten her something so amazing. Despite his earlier grumbling, Sakura absolutely loved the dark pink color of the coat. It was bright enough to be a great look on her, yet dark enough to where she could actually hide with it pretty easily if she used genjutsu on it._

_Best of all, it helped her appreciate the winter night for all its beauty as they walked through the streets. Her gaze fell on the sight of the snow falling on all of Konoha. Each little snowflake drifting and falling in the dead of night without a sound to be heard from anywhere. It was so peaceful. People were inside, keeping warm. Shops had closed early for the night, so there was no noise there. The only sounds she could hear were the faint breeze that whistled in the night._

_"It's a beautiful night, isn't it." Sakura said._

_"It really is." Naruto agreed. "I've always loved the snow."_

_"Yeah?"_

_"Yep. It's always been so calming. Naruto sighed. "When I was a kid I'd be outside with my little sweater and a red scarf, just walking in the snow late at night when nobody else was around. I felt so cold by the end, but I just loved the sight of all of these tiny snowflakes fall all around me."_

_"And. . ." Suddenly, a snowflake planted itself on the tip of Naruto's nose. "Sometimes falling __**on**__ me." Sakura tried to maintain her composure, but she failed and ended up giggling like a schoolgirl while Naruto quickly wiped his nose of the white intruder._

_"You can be so cute baka." Sakura laughed._

_Then she went silent. She did not just say that, did she? What was the weather doing to her brain!?_

_"Um, are you chilly at all?" Naruto asked, thankfully changing the subject. Sakura shook her head as she adjusted her coat around her arms._

_"Nope." she replied, smiling without any inhibition. "I can barely even tell its winter in this. It's like my chakra is insulating the coat." she had a thought. "Oh, that's how it works I'm guessing. You can passivle leak more chakra into it when you want to be warm, and less of it when you're too hot and need to keep cool, right?"_

_Naruto's eyes widened in surprise, leaving Sakura immensely pleased with herself. Naruto hadn't expected her to figure it out so quickly. But she could hear his quiet little sigh as he realized that it was her. Of course she would be able to figure it out within ten minutes of first putting it on. He was equal parts scared and excited to see what offensive techniques she would come up with._

_But he was even more surprised with what she said next._

_"So Naruto, are you seeing anybody?"_

_Naruto would've spat out his drink. If he actually had a drink with which to spit take._

_"Could, could you repeat that Sakura? I don't think I heard you correctly." Naruto braced himself for the inevitable scowl from Sakura. But he found that she only sighed. She almost looked amused with him._

_"I'm just kind of curious. I mean, you're the hero of the village now. I hear the girls at the hospital gossiping about you all the time."_

_"They do?" Naruto asked, to which Sakura nodded. "I did not know that."_

_"Oh please you must know. I see you running from fangirls, and fanboys too actually, all the time. Are you saying you never asked one of them out?" Sakura asked._

_Naruto shrugged with a smirk of mock pride. "I mean, it's nice having the people love me and all. But they just like me for what I've done, not for who I am, I feel like a date with one of them wouldn't really mean anything besides a chance to meet somebody famous, you know? Plus I've just never really wanted to go out with anyone lately. I've got training, missions, paperwork, The usual." He rubbed his chin as he spoke. "Though it is weird people keep talking about how adorable my whisker marks are."_

_Sakura returned his smirk as they continued to walk down the snowy streets of the village. It was kind of funny that she wasn't the only one who found his little cat marks cute._

_But there was a burning question in her mind that she simply had to answer. Ino had been bugging her about finding an answer for weeks, and by Kami tonight would be the night she would find an answer. Yet, she felt kind of funny. She was beginning to feel butterflies fluttering about in her stomach, so that when she asked her question, she involuntarily squeaked._

_"What about. . .Ahem, what about Hinata?" she asked, lowering her voice to sound calm. She certainly had trouble maintaining that calm when she saw Naruto sighing, as his gaze drifted towards the ground like he was ashamed of himself. It was a sight she hadn't seen in such a long time, and it made her very worried. Fortunately, Naruto raised his head to speak._

_"Hinata is. . .Very dear to me." he said._

_"Really? How so?" Sakura spoke, faster than she meant to. Naruto didn't seem to notice._

_"Well, she's an amazing person. She's changed so much since we were kids. I remember seeing her, barely able to speak to me or even most people. She was so scared of, well everything I guess. I wanted to help her, support her and see her get strong and stand up for herself. Remember her fight against Neji? She almost died but kept going, apparently because of the support I gave her. She grew incredibly strong because of her hard work. I was amazed at seeing her fight against Pain all by herself to protect me, knowing full well what would happen if she did. . .Then when she looked at me and said she loved me I just. . ."_

_Naruto sighed again.  
"I didn't know what to say to her. It was kind of disorienting hearing that from her. I was so confused by it that I just flat out didn't bring it up. I couldn't think of what to say for the entire war. I only worked up the nerve to bring it up with her again three-"_

_"Three months ago at Ichiraku's?" Sakura asked. _

_Naruto looked at her with confusion and a hint of irritation. "Sorry." she muttered in guilt. "When you know as many people at the hospital as I do, rumors start seeping into your ears about who's dating who. Gossip osmosis."_

_"Well me and Hinata aren't dating." Naruto responded with a sigh. "We never did, just to clarify."_

_ Sakura could see the sadness in his face. She slowly brought her hand up to his shoulder, patting it gently. He clearly appreciated the gesture, giving her a tiny smile in response._

_"We did in fact go to Ichiraku's though. I wanted to buy her some ramen, you know to spend some time with a good friend. Turns out she likes ramen as well, and we just chatted about anything that came to mind. Jutsus, books, the war. We talked for so long that night that I think it was well past midnight when we finished. We laughed and joked about our time as kids. . .Then we talked about what happened during Pain's invasion, and how we felt towards each other." Naruto sighed. "She said everything she wanted to say, that I was an inspiration for her, teaching her how to stand up for herself. She found my uh, boundless optimism really 'cute and charming' she said."_

_Sakura nodded in response, listening intently to every single word of the story._

_"So what happened?"_

_"I just. . .I just said that I didn't feel that way about her. I still don't. She's a great friend and a wonderful person, definitely someone I'd go to a party with or have as a teammate. I'd want her on my team in a heartbeat. She's a very sweet person too, so kind that I literally saw her coax an injured hummingbird out of it's hiding place, before nursing it back to health and keeping it as a pet. She's like a sister to me, someone I would gladly ask to be my hypothetical child's godmother. But.."_

_"You love her, but you're not in love with her." Sakura said, and Naruto slowly nodded in response. "So how did she take it?"_

_"I wasn't sure at first. I could tell she was sad to hear it, and it took a while for her to talk again. For awhile we just sad there leaning on the counter while Teuchi and Ayame cooked. I don't remember how long we sat there until she talked. She was sad, talking with that wavering nervous tone, though she calmed down after some water. She said that she understood how I felt even if I didn't return her feelings, and even asked if she had made me uncomfortable." Naruto gave a smile as he shook his head. "I said that she didn't of course. She never could. I said I was sorry that I didn't feel the same way, and that if she wanted to talk more about it, or not at all, I would understand. Because I care about her a great deal and I really do want her to be happy, believe me. She said she would let me know if she ever wanted to talk or needed space. I feel like she took it well, she just needed time." Naruto shoved his hands into his jacket pockets, looking up absentmindedly at the sky._

_"Before we said goodnight to each other, she asked if she could have a hug." he chuckled while Sakura smiled. "I said she could have all the hugs she needed. Apparently I give really comforting hugs, because Hinata left with a little smile that night. Well, she did do something before she left." Naruto tapped his cheek with a smile. "Gave me a little kiss on the cheek before she went home, she wished me good luck with the ladies."_

"What happened since then?"

_Naruto shrugged. "We've run into each other at the grocery store and the job board a few times. We haven't said much to each other besides some hellos and small talk. I think she's doing alright though. Lately she seems a lot happier, more at ease. Hopefully we'll be alright in a few weeks maybe. At least I hope so."_

_"Aww. Well, I'm happy that you two could work it out at least." Sakura said. But while her face showed a smile, her mind was overheating._

_This didn't make any damn sense! Naruto hadn't gone out with Hinata? What thehell was happening here? Did Madara win the war and trap them all in a permanent genjutsu!? Was the sky going start raining chocolate milk? Was she going to wake up and see a Hokage Monument with her dad's face on it again!?_

_"Ever since that night," Naruto continued, shaking Sakura from her thoughts." I haven't really thought about dating that much. I guess I'm just waiting."_

_"For what?" Sakura asked Naruto looked at Sakura, and smiled that warm smile of his._

_"Heh, not sure." he said. Sakura felt that sensation of butterflies in her stomach start to grow, and it only spiked when Naruto spoke again._

_"Typical baka." Sakura chuckled, trying to suppress the sensation._

_"So what about you Sakura? Any dating, any fanboys going after the legendary Cherry Blossom Juggernaut?"_

_"Not really...Or at least not the kind of fanboys I'd ever be interested in." she responded, giving a smile when at the use of the nickname she had gained since the Fourth Shinobi War. "I get a few moronic boys asking if I want to 'come to the gun-show' now and then. Some of them try arm wrestling me to get a date if they win."_

_"Poor bastards." __Naruto shook his head in honor of the fools who lacked the survival instinct to not try a physical challenge against a woman who can and had reshaped the landscape with her thumb. He had heard stories of a few guys requiring urgent medical attention after a night at this one bar, and Sakura's words only confirmed that she had been the cause of the lines of men slouched in shame and embarrassment at the hospital. They were seeking healing for their bruised egos just as much, if not more than, the actual bruises they received._

_"None of them succeeded of course. It's just been the usual stream of muscle heads trying to impress me." she shrugged. "Other than that, I haven't had much activity in that area." Sakura gave a tiny smile, masking a sadness that despite her best efforts was very visible. "I am indeed still single Naruto."_

_"Seriously?" Naruto asked. "Who wouldn't want to go out with you?"_

_"Come again?" Sakura asked._

_ Did the baka really just say what she thought he said?_

_"You heard me." _

_HE DID!? _

_"Well come on. You're strong and absolutely fearless. Despite the fact that you can crush steel **by accident**, you're very kind and relaxed most of the time. Well, and obviously you're very lovely. How can there not be whole streets of sophisticated bachelors kneeling to ask you out?" Naruto chuckled. "I swear the world must be going mad when people pass over a woman like you. I can't believe people used to say I'm crazy, those morons."_

_HE DID!_

_Sakura's mind seemed to skip a few seconds. When she fully realized what Naruto had actually said, her cheeks went the deepest, darkest red they ever turned. When did Naruto get so. . .Honest? When did he gain the confidence to talk with her about this kind of stuff? Looking at him now, Sakura could see somebody who was far more relaxed and easy-going than his childhood self._

_He merely strolled alongside her, quietly whistling a tune to himself while he looked at the snow. Maybe he was shaking off the awkwardness, or maybe he was just at ease with their talking about something something like their respective, and nonexistent, love lives. Perhaps he was a lot more grown up now. . ._

_Naruto suddenly let out a faint giggle. "You know, I wonder if Kakashi-senseis dating somebody with eyepatch and silver hair." he mused. "To match his own look I mean."_

_Sakura started giggling._

_Then she started chuckling, before she burst out into full laughter._

_Now she couldn't get the image of of her head._

_"Oh my god yes!" she laughed. "If he ever had kids he'd give them all little eyepatches on their birthdays."_

_"Right!? Then he'd start giving them mouth covers! The family picture's would be nothing but eyepatches and silver hair!"_

_Neither of them could contain their laughter in the cold night. Sakura felt like she was a kid again as she and Naruto struggled to maintain their balance, eventually stumbling into each other's arms and only barely making any progress in their journey. But they didn't pay it any attention and just laughed and laughed together._

_It had been a good long while since Sakura had laughed so hard. The effects of the Shinobi War had been dark on all of them, but Naruto always managed to make her smile._

_So it was with no small amount of wiping joyful tears from her eyes that she managed to actually walk correctly. Naruto joined her in proper limb coordination soon after, and they both fell into a pleasant silence with each other. They both simply enjoyed each other's company, walking together in the quiet, snowy night. Sakura felt so comfortable walking alongside Naruto, being with Naruto. The big adorable baka was like a. . .Cousin? No that wasn't it. A brother didn't fit the bill either. Strange, she didn't know how he fit in her mind._

_But she did know how much he had done for her._

_"Naruto, I don't say this enough, but thank you."_

_Naruto chuckled. "For the coat? Ahh don't sweat it. I just thought you would like having one. I mean its got a lot of benefits like the, the..." Naruto's speech faded out, and his steady pace slowed to a crawl when he felt Sakura's arm wrapping around his own._

_"I don't just mean the coat." she said, keeping in time with his steps._

_". . .What did you mean then?"_

_"Everything, silly."_

_Naruto's own eyebrow shot up his forehead. Sakura could see the confusion growing in his mind by the second, as well as two tiny red patches forming on his cheeks on top of his adorable whiskers. She couldn't believe how cute those looked, and smiled as he looked unbelievably adorable._

_"Everything you've done for me since we were put in Team 7. All those bad jokes and funny grins. You were, and are, so sweet to me, even when I was being the most unlikable kid."_

_"Ahh don't be so hard on yourself."_

_"I'm not. I'm being honest." she insisted. "I could be a nasty little girl back then. I'd be loud, obnoxious and maybe even a little bit self-centered. A bit. That's not even mentioning the whole business with. . ." she still had a bit of trouble when mentioning his name._

_Fortunately, or unfortunately, Naruto finished her train of thought. "Sasuke."_

_"Yeah." for a minute they were both silent as the last sight they both had of Sasuke years ago in the war. The wounds of that battle had healed, but the scars were still visible and throbbed a little bit each and every day._

_ Still clinging to Naruto's arm, Sakura rested her head on his shoulder._

_"Even when that was going on you didn't give up on me. You're best teammate I could have ever had. I'm never going to forget how you went so far to help me." she dropped her voice to a whisper. "And I'm sorry I forced such a burden on your shoulders with that ridiculous promise." Naruto's gaze turned emotionless, devoid of any and all discernible thought to Sakura's eyes._

_"And I just wanted to say thank you for everything you've done for me. You always make me laugh even if I don't show it. You help me train beyond what I ever thought I could do, and you've always been a great friend to me. I'm not sure if I can ever make it up to you even with all the time in the world. But even if I can't, I just wanted to tell you that. You're important to me, and I want you to know it. So," Sakura jabbed at his side with a giggle, trying to mask her own growing nervousness. "thank you baka."_

_Naruto spoke very quietly, almost at a whisper. ". . .You're welcome Sakura."_

_Naruto remained silent as their walk continued. He hadn't pushed her away or pulled her into an embrace. He hadn't giggled or frowned. He hadn't really done anything at all to indicate how he felt. At least he hadn't put on that foxy grin of his that always always meant he was trying to hide something from her. That was at least a good several tense minutes of silence, they arrived in front of Sakura's home that was near the edge of the viilage, far from the social hubs and noise of Konoha. Whereas Naruto lived in the slums, Sakura's home was in the southern suburbs, a calm neighborhood fit for a growing family or a shinobi wanting some peace and quiet from their chaotic occupation._

_Sakura's home was a small but comfortable place. It wasn't too expensive and relatively dull compared to the more extravagant dwellings in this part of the village, a perfect hidden spot for her to relax in. It was a dull blue, and had a second floor that she didn't really know what to do with. She had more than enough space as it was, which meant two whole other rooms that remained empty. It got quiet in her home, too quiet even for her sometimes. But it was her home, and she was proud to have it. The fresh snow on the roof only made the sight of her home all the more beautiful._

_The two of them stood outside, quiet as the grave in the snow. Kami she hoped she hadn't made Naruto nervous with her words. In all likelihood he was going crazy just trying to process what he had heard. It was a bit shocking no doubt to hear all of that from her, and Sakura herself could barely believe the words that had left her lips. Somehow what was supposed to be a simple "thank you" had turned into her spilling her guts to Naruto. What the hell had she been thinking? When did it get so easy to confess her feelings to him on a moments notice? Maybe the cold was somehow making her delusional through the coat. . ._

_"Ugh." Sakura muttered to herself as she adjusted her coat again._

_"Are you alright?" Naruto asked._

_"I'm okay, just have this little chill." she pulled her coat tightly around her chest."I can't really explain it. It's like there's a little annoying-"_

_"Icy feeling that keeps running up and down your spine, making you go nuts because you can't make it stop?"  
Sakura looked up at him, seeing him sporting a smile. But it wasn't the foxy look he usually gave. This was a completely sincere and open smile, and the sight of it set about little butterflies in her stomach. Sakura was now trying desperately to not lot her nervousness show._

_"Pretty much. How did you know?"_

_Naruto shrugged. "I guess I'm feeling that myself."_

_"Baka." Sakura muttered. "We're both freezing even with these fancy coats. I guess there's nothing for it."_

_"Actually..." Suddenly an idea popped into Naruto's head, and he looked at the collar on Sakura's coat. He was such an idiot, he couldn't believe he had forgotten about that feature of all things! He didn't waste a second, and gently reached around Sakura's neck, thumbing the fabric._

_"What are you doing now?" Sakura asked._

_"Just showing you a little feature of the coat." He was never good at finding the mechanism for his own coat even on good days. "Somehow I forgot about it, but I think it's. . .Aha!" His fingers found the little tag that triggered the gizmo._

_He gave a yank, and suddenly the cloth just below Sakura's neck sprung up like a tightly compressed spring. It stretched and unfolded in segments, climbing up along Sakura's neck, before reaching the maximum of its height to fall back down around her head as a fully assembled hood. It ended up covering most of her head, so that only her mouth was visible._

_A mouth that was a perfectly horizontal line and no doubt would begin curving into a frown any second._

_Yet Naruto could only laugh to himself. Somehow he had forgotten to get the measurements for a damned collapsible hood. He knew he had been forgetting something, and now it was here. If only he had just looked at one of her hoodies this never would've happened. Damned hindsight._

_Sakura herself looked considerably less amused. "Naruto, why did my coat just sprout a hood?" she asked, speaking so that Naruto had no possible way of figuring out what she was feeling. Her voice was neutrality personified._

_"It's a, it's a little feature I have in my own coat. When it looks like heavy rain or wind, you just pull the tag and the hood pops up, ready to protect your face from whatever hazards you might find." Naruto had to suppress his laughter unless he wanted to go supersonic via her fist._

_". . .So as long as I don't need to see, it's alright then?" Still she spoke with that tone that left Naruto feeling like he was taunting Kurama. So with his sword hand twitching and his mind reviewing methods of surviving puncture wounds to his chest, naturally Naruto's mind jumped to jokes._

_"Well you can sense chakra better than me, and most people actually. Ooh! Maybe you could go with the whole 'blind ninja' act."_

_"But that's your shtick baka. You already practice with a blindfold on while using your emotional radar thing."_

_"Emotion sensing, and come on, being cool is not an exclusive thing. You could be the mysterious kunoichi from another land, appearing in your dark pink and black cloak. It could totally work! Appear to be some defenseless girl, and then send a jerk into the upper atmosphere before you dish out to a whole gang some serious pain without a single hair out of place, all while looking like a badass in your coat and hood."_

_". . .Is this what you think about doing when you're wearing your-"_

_"Yes!" _

_For a moment Naruto stood there with a gigantic and absolutely childish grin._

_"I don't know why I even asked." Sakura said. "I will admit that this is kind of handy, but the hood function might be more trouble than it's worth when it's like this." She shrugged, lifting the hood only a few inches up her face so that part of her nose was visible. "Ya see?"_

_"That's one way of looking at it." Naruto responded. "It's kind of cute though."_

_He didn't know what it was, but he felt like taking different approaches tonight, at least when it came to Sakura. Normally he would've apologized profusely with the knowledge that he would inevitably be sent into orbit, but nowadays he felt particularly bold, and not just because he had kicked Madara's ass into oblivion. He knew she was strong, and he respected that strength, but he wasn't about to run away when she frowned at him. He didn't feel that childhood fear of Sakura's it was with no small amount of courage backing him up that Naruto pinched the edge of the hood, and started to slowly lifted it up._

_"Besides, it's not all bad." he said. Inch by inch Sakura's face was revealed, showing the emerald pools of her eyes that looked at him with. . .Amusement, and something else he couldn't place. There was some kind of twinkling in her eyes, a glean that caused the sensation of ice running up and down his spine again. Slowly, but surely, Naruto found himself leaning closer to his old friend and teammate._

_"Tadaa." he quietly cheered. "There, you can see just fine now." Naruto smiled._

_Sakura giggled in a high and squeaky pitch that surprised both of them, though they both hid their reaction, or at least tried to. Naruto was still trying not to laugh at the sight of the powerful Sakura Haruno being surprised by a hood, and Sakura was trying not to laugh at the situation she found herself in. She hadn't seen the trick coming, so when the hood jumped up she was more dumbfounded than annoyed. She wondered with a faint smile to herself if the trick would work on Naruto when he caught her off guard._

_But for now, she just looked up at the baka whom was still giving her that adorable smile decorated with two very red patches on his whiskered cheeks. Kami he looked so cute._

_"I guess I can see, can't I." she responded, but then a question sprang to her mind. "Why did you put this feature in anyway? Not that I'm ungrateful, but a little weather won't stop people like us. Hell Madara couldn't stop us. Are you going overboard with the features, or do you think it'd just be funny to pull this one on me. Oh don't be scared I'm not going to hit you anymore, and that's a promise."_

_"Phew." Naruto thought. That was a little burden off his shoulders._

_But then it was replaced by some great weight on his chest when Sakura's question was fully processed by his brain. Then the floodgates opened. He had been thinking about what he'd say since the day he commissioned the coat for her. Yet now that he was actually being asked now, he found that he started blubbering like a child._

_"Well. . .I. . .I want you to be safe." it was like there was an entire hive in his stomach now. "I know you can take care of yourself, but I can't help but worry about you." Naruto's hand remained affixed to the edge of Sakura's hood. "Even if the war's over, I'm worried about people I care about being safe, especially you. You mean a lot to me. You're the one who's always been with me when it mattered most, always helping to patch me up or save me when I was in trouble. Well, I want to do the same for you now. You don't need my protection, but I want to give it to you. I just. . .I don't want you to be hurt. It's like you said, you're important to me."_

_They were both silent for a time._

_Sakura and Naruto's eyes were connected, locked on to each other and not wavering a single millimeter. Neither of them could look away, they wouldn't look away. They both felt that funny feeling in their spines again, something that was nipping at them both. Sakura didn't know what to say to him. What could she say to something like that?  
She realized this must be how Naruto felt earlier, being unable to come up with the words to respond. It felt weird, but at the same time it felt kind of wonderful. Hearing those words from Naruto, it filled her with something she couldn't even name._

_Naruto took a few steps closer to her, and Sakura only just noticed they were practically in each other's arms at this point. She was surprised at how Naruto managed that, but even more surprised that she didn't mind being this close to him. He still had his hand on her hood, and had raised it so that only her face was visible. But then he started raising it more._

_"Call me crazy, but I don't want anybody to put a scratch on you." the hood crept higher."Especially not on your forehead." Naruto's voice wavered ever so slightly, like he was nervous. Sakura herself didn't feel nervous. She felt absolutely paralyzed, unable to even talk properly._

_"W-why is that? Is th-there something special about my forehead N-Naruto?" she felt like Hinata with how poorly she was speaking._

_"Well. . .It's just so adorable Sakura." he said. Then his voice dropped to a whisper as the hood was fully lifted. Sakura's head was now fully visible to him, showing the small purple diamond shape of the Hyakugou in the center of her forehead._

_Sakura felt funny. She couldn't even begin to describe what she was feeling, but it left her quivering in her boots. Despite being completely protected from the air, she couldn't help but shake uncontrollably. Naruto inched closer and closer to her, and he smiled._

_"It makes me want to kiss it." Naruto leaned in as his eyes closed. _

_Then it happened. . ._

_Something happened. . ._

_What just happened?_

_Sakura's mind must have fallen behind what her senses were telling her. Suddenly she felt a moist warm spot in the middle of her forehead. What the hell just happened? Now she was looking up at Naruto, feeling in a daze while he looked back at her. Sakura could feel his own hand shaking just as much as hers. She could see that he was shaking like mad. The smile on his lips was replaced by a nervous half-grin that twitched uncontrollably. He was trying not to faint as far as she could tell._

_For Sakura, her shaking stopped completely. She suddenly felt at ease standing in his arms now. Years of memories washed over her mind. Countless interactions during their early times as Team 7, the reunion of them all at Orochimaru's hideout, the battles with Akatsuki and the Fourth Shinobi War. Sakura felt an epiphany, and she couldn't be happier with it. She brought her hand up to Naruto's cheek and smiled at him._

_"Now it makes sense. All of it."_

_"Huh?" he sputtered._

_"All those years ago, sitting on the bench with Sasuke. I thought he was a giant softie who couldn't show how much he loved me." Sakura eyed Naruto with a devilish smirk. "It never made sense, that he could be such a sweetie and yet try to, you know, stab me later. I kept thinking about that day, trying to figure it all out." She sighed, slightly shaking her head. "But it wasn't Sasuke back then. It was you. It was you who said those sappy things. It was always you." she grinned. "I can't believe I never realized it." Sakura gently slapped his cheek. "You make things so weirdly interesting Naruto, you know that?"_

_"Um. . .Thank you?"_

_"No, thank you." Sakura smiled at Naruto. He looked on the sight of her smiling at him, and he could honestly say it was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. It was like there was a second sun shining just for him. He was so enraptured with her gaze that he didn't even notice Sakura leaning towards him by her tiptoes. But he did see her eyes closing._

_Then something happened. . ._

_Again._

_Only now it was Naruto who's brain fell behind the rest of his senses. His lips felt funny, and they were moving completely on their own in tandem with something else. It was warm, and he felt someone else's breath reaching his lips. He couldn't have passed out and woken up with his face in a bowl of ramen again,so what was happening? He was still standing outside Sakura's house, with her hood still held in his other hand, and she had just leaned in to-_

_Oh sweet heavenly ramen of almighty Kami. . ._

_Sakura chuckled as she broke away from Naruto's lips. Both of them were in a bit of a daze now. Their stomachs were filled with hornets, their backs felt like they had been dipped in it ice water, they were both panting, and their entire bodies were shaking from the excitement and nervousness they were both feeling. They could hardly breath. Yet for some reason they didn't mind. As they stood in each other's arms, everything just felt right with the world._

_"Naruto, I gotta go inside."_

_"Uh, yeah. Yeah you should. It's too cold out here."_

_"Will you be alright at your place?"_

_"Eh, don't worry about me. I'll be okay. The heating is a bit wonky, but I'll manage."_

_". . ."_

_"Sakura?"_

_"Oh, it's nothing. I think I just need some hot chocolate."_

_"Hot chocolate. . .Hot chocolate's good."_

_"Yep. It's great isn't it." Sakura brought his hand into her own. "Do you like hot chocolate Naruto?"_

_"Well it's pretty good." he smiled back. "Great for keeping warm."_

_"Yes. It's pretty cold out, and I think you'd love having some."_

_"Maybe. I don't know of any place around here that's open this late."_

_". . .Baka." Sakura muttered. "Come inside, we can share some."_

_"Really?"_

_"Of course. I'd be happy to have you." Sakura pulled him closer to her and rested her head on his shoulder. "So what is it. Would you like to come inside? Just you and me?"_

_Naruto smiled as he rested his head against Sakura's with a happy sigh. "Yeah. I'd love to." he said. Sakura pulled on his arm._

_"Good."_

* * *

"Baka."

Sakura pulled the coat tightly around herself. The wind was beginning to pick up now. She leaked more of her chakra into the coats threads, increasing its insulation around her body. The only sign of the weather affecting her was the ends of her coat and the hood thrashing in the wind. No doubt the weather would only get worse by the minute. She could already see the storm clouds growing larger, the wind getting harsher, the temperature dropping. All of them were little signs of the madness she could feel with her chakra sense.

Every few seconds there was a pulse, a tiny crackle of energy in the air. Sometimes it was Sasuke, other times it was Naruto. Normally when two shinobi fought, their chakra would both decrease. The loser would decrease far faster than the winner, until one would deplete as a sign of either death or unconsciousness.  
That wasn't the case with this fight. One of the chakras would spike in intensity, only to be matched by the other. That something like this was happening spit in the face of all the books written on the usage of chakra. But then again, Sakura had seen friends and enemies rise from the grave, meteors summoned on a whim, people who could crush an entire village with gravity, and a ten-tailed eldritch horror the size of a mountain. When compared to something that "merely" defied the laws of chakra, she found it almost mundane. At least when said breaking of the laws was being done by Naruto.

Her Naruto. Her baka

"You'd better come back to me." she muttered.


	4. Part 4: Red Eyes Of Rage

Author's Note: Finished this chapter late on a work night. Sleepy. Story will continue regardless of how long it takes cause I love writing this until its over. Then I suspect I'll get back to Fire wind and ice. YAaaaay :D

Enjoy, this has action galure. Nighto.

* * *

__The Hokage Office was as stuffy as always.__

__"Kakashi sensei, are they ever going to install air conditioning in here?"__

__"I think hell would need to freeze over for the universe to even consider that."__

__Naruto smirked. Whenever he was in this room he could feel the stale air and heat resting on his skin and heating his clothes. On his first visit here as a genin, he couldn't help but be a bit distracted by the oppressive tinge in the air, the temperature that trapped him in a summer afternoon-esque bore.  
He had expected, and in the past Tsunade had no doubt prayed, that someone would install some damn air conditioning eventually. On a few occasions Team 7 would return from a mission to the sight of Tsunade bathed in sweat, lying on the floor as she begged for the sweet release of death. It was a problem that Naruto believed was part of the reason she could be so crabby, and she had tried to get something, anything installed in her office beside a piddly little fan. Yet for years her requests to have some basic cooling installed had been lost in the mountains of paperwork she had been buried under on a daily basis. __

__Pain's attack would've at least encouraged innovation in building design from the old constructions that had endured since the First Hokage's rule, and indeed that seemed to be the case with the Hokage Building. When Tsunade awoke from her coma, she was happy to eventually learn that her office had been completely rebuilt. __

__But in the minds of the village council, "completely rebuilt" meant "exactly the same as before." There was some jargon about preserving the Hokage's position beyond mere renovations, which apparently extended to placing an identical rug, desk, and chair in the place. It looked nice, but for some reason the repair crews had yet to install air conditioning. Again. Which meant that for the time being, the current Sixth Hokage was doomed to long meetings and paperwork sessions in a stuffy room.__

__Though Naruto could see that his former teacher had found his own ways to alleviate the long hours. Now instead of one Hokage stewing in the stuffy room, there were at least a dozen Kakashi's wrapping up the days work. Kakashi was absolutely desperate to lighten his work load when he took up the position, so he had asked anybody he could for tips. After a few days of testing and failing at several methods involving spreadsheets and self-help books, Kakashi had found himself slumped in misery at Ichiraku's with his two students. ____Then Naruto had offered up a suggestion. __

__The silence had been absolutely deafening.__

__Naruto kept telling himself that it was an obvious idea really. __

__Anyone would've thought of it.__

__He had felt kind of silly to offer a solution that he had thought Kakashi had brushed off for some reason Naruto didn't know of. But when Naruto offered the idea that a common jutsu would have such a useful application, not only did Sakura, Ayame, and Teuchi participate in a perfectly synchronized facepalm, but the new Hokage marched off in a incomprehensible grumble. Naruto was at first worried if he'd angered Kakashi in some way, but Sakura theorized that their sensei was just bitter for not having thought of the idea himself.__

__It had taken several seconds and a light tap from Sakur, before Naruto's brain had processed what he'd heard. When he did, he had broken down in cackling so intense that he fell out of his chair.__

__"Good to see you're taking my advice sensei." Naruto said. "They really do work wonders don't they?" He plopped himself into an armchair, while Kakashi remained focused on a few papers in his hands saying nothing. Naruto took it in stride, leaning back in his seat with a happy sigh. He could wait for whatever it was that Kakashi needed. It was odd being called in at this late in the afternoon, when Kakashi's work hours ended and he'd head home with Anko. Whatever he needed Naruto for was either to pull a prank on somebody, usually Guy, or to bust some heads. Sometimes both. But he was content to wait. He had one hell of a view after all.__

__While the room was stuffy, there was not a single person in the village who would deny that the view from the office was simply breathtaking.. The stale air was offset by the sight of the entire village through the giant windows. With one spin of a chair the Hokage could look away from their mountain of paperwork and remind themselves why they were the leader of the village.__

__Naruto was loathed to tempt fate given how often things went wrong, but he was hopeful that when he became Hokage, he could make more than a few changes around here. He couldn't make ramen a national food, but he could probably help smooth out some things.__

__Paperwork was the first thing that came to mind. A kage needed to know what was going on in their village certainly, but bogging down the most powerful shinobi of the village with forms concerning every single cat retrieval was just stupidly inefficient. The work could easily be divided up a bit. Maybe to the council members whom only seemed to exist to disagree with every single decision made by the Hokage and sit around looking disapprovingly at people. It wouldn't hurt to hire shinobi who were retired from or poorly suited to combat to do a bit of simple paperwork. As it was right now, the office of Hokage was the job just to have someone processing the day-to-day bureaucracy. If he could adjust things a bit, it'd free up him and others to focus on other matters. . .__

__"Kakashi-sensei, do you think a Hokage would be allowed to declare a ramen holiday? I'm thinking there should be a giant festival all around the village. With floats, and a mascot. Or a ramen cannon!"__

__Silence. Kakashi kept staring at his papers, almost as if deaf to his absolutely favorite student in the entire world.__

__Seriously? No reaction at all, not even to my genius plans? Look, I'm sorry the latest Icha Icha isn't out yet okay? I'm still working on the last chapter and it takes longer than you'd think to edit a romance novel. I promise you'll get the first edition as soon as I'm done."__

__Again Kakashi had no response. Icha Icha had no effect on his sensei.__

__Icha. Icha.__

__This was actually serious.__

__Naruto sat up in his seat and swept away thoughts of international ramen celebrations, delicious as they would be. Kakashi was still looking over a single paper now. In fact it was the same paper he'd been staring at this entire time. Unless it was another lewdly written love letter from Anko with even more lewd pictures inside, Kakashi never stared at a single paper this long.__

__Naruto entertained the idea that Anko had taken the leap before Kakashi in popping the question, but if that had happened he would've found his sensei unconscious on the floor, giggling. No, this was something else entirely. He was glaring at the document like it was an enemy shinobi aiming for his throat. It was either news of an oncoming conflict, another Orochimaru hideout or hidden Root operation, or...__

__"You have an update on Sasuke?" Naruto leaned in, eager to know more.__

__"Yeah." Kakashi responded, noticeably weary in his tone.__

__"Anything precise?" Naruto asked, to which Kakashi gave the tiniest of shrugs.__

__"A week ago today, ANBU came across this dark chakra signature near the northwestern border with the Land of Waterfalls." Kakashi sat up in his own chair, turning to set the paper down on the desk with a sigh. "It was an Uchiha."__

__"Great." Naruto picked up the paper, seeing the location where the chakra signal had been located on a small map. "Figures he'd go to the geographic center of the shinobi world."__

__Kakashi shrugged. "For all we know he's found an Orochimaru lab in the area and is using that as a base, or maybe an abandoned Akatsuki lair. The ANBU reported that they couldn't get much of a fix on the source of the chakra before they were attacked."__

__"Damn." Naruto knew that area very well. One tended to remember locations that had been the sight of a cataclysmic battle, especially one wrought by two very powerful Uchiha's. The foul chakras in the air had stung his great senses in a way he would never forget. Suddenly his gaze shot up to look at his sensei as he realized something.__

__"Wait, the ANBU came across this a week ago? The travel time to the border is just under three days. Why did it take so long for them to get back?"__

__"Because of the six ANBU who were sent out, only Sai came back," Kakashi pulled out a thick paper from a folder on the desk, sliding it over into Naruto's reach. "and even he almost died on the operating table from what happened to him."__

__The paper was a collage of several angles of Sai's body, and all the angles revealed how seriously he'd been injured. The chest looked like it had been mauled by a pack of wolves. There was barely any skin left, and Naruto guessed that the only reason the ANBU had ever made it back was because he was scared of the monster that had done this to him. The arms were more cut up than the legs, though there was a nasty dislocated shoulder that would probably leave him in the hospital for a good while even with the healing skills of their doctors. His face was bruised and cut up, like he had tried shaving with a rusty cleaver.__

__"That. Bastard." Naruto said. Kakashi nodded in response.__

__"Medics showed all those injuries were inflicted in the same ten minute time span, give or take. If anything these were injuries from anger. One doesn't inflict that many injuries so quickly for entertainment. The best I can figure is Sasuke was working out his frustration."__

__Naruto's lips curled into a frown. His eyebrows arched, and his free hand clenched into a fist.__

__"What? You call these the wounds of a fight Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto tossed the paper onto the desk. "This wasn't a fight, it was target practice. He wasn't working out anger on these guys, he was having a light workout." He rose from his seat with a growl. "This was goddamn training for him. He's powerful and he knows that. He's flexing his muscles for...For..."__

__"An attack?" Kakashi asked.__

__Naruto tensed up at those words, looking at his sensei with genuine shock. Though Kakashi noticed there was a faint glint of anger in his student judging from the fire in his eyes. Naruto didn't want to consider that possibility, none of Team 7 did. They all hoped that Sasuke would just quietly leave and wander around when the war was over, free from their minds.__

__Naruto didn't want to consider the possibility that even after facing near-certain annihilation and the subjugation of the entire world, from another Uchiha no less, that Sasuke would still want to come back and reap bloody vengeance on the village regardless of whom was involved. Kakashi could see it in the eyes, that desperate, shifty gaze that searched for an explanation.__

__"It wouldn't make any sense if he did. There's nobody left to blame. Madara's dead and vaporized twice over. Sasuke even killed Danzo himself...Sort of. Hiruzen's long dead, and Koharu and Homura had about as much impact on the decision behind the massacre as..." Naruto stopped his pacing and whipped around to face Kakashi, now with a far angrier expression. "You did for Kami's sake! I mean, who else could he possibly kill!?"__

__"You." Kakashi a sigh he rose from his chair while Naruto looked back, unable to say anything.__

__"He could kill Naruto Uzumaki, his former teammate and fiercest rival. The man whom tried to stop him from completing his life-long ambition multiple times. The one person in this world who could pose a legitimate challenge for him, and the one person who could stop him if he attacked Konoha. He could kill you, and prove himself the strongest in our world."__

__Kakashi stood in front of his former student, placing a hand on his shoulder. Right now he wanted to assure Naruto that Sasuke was just a phantom, that they wouldn't have to worry about anything. Sadly, he'd have to break him.__

__"But that's no guarantee he'd stop with me Kakashi." Naruto snarled, earning Kakashi's surprise. "It'd do the exact opposite actually. With me dead he'd be able to do whatever he felt like. I'm his biggest obstacle, and if I'm killed he'd have nothing left to focus his anger on besides the village. He wouldn't stop with me. He'd go after you, Shikamaru, Kiba, Hinata,"__

__"Sakura." Kakashi interrupted, earning Naruto's silence once again.__

__"Yeah. Yeah he would." Naruto ran his fingers through his hair. "Of course that's if he doesn't try extracting the Kyuubi from me and using it as a weapon." he chuckled. "Goddamnit, this never ends. Madara and Tobirama, Jiraiya and Orochimaru, you and Obito. Looks like me and Sasuke are next in line to tear each other apart."__

__For a while, the two said nothing. Kakashi gave Naruto the silence he no doubt needed to think this over. He certainly seemed to be in a whirlwind of thought. The look in his eyes kept changing from angry to miserable to fearful to even a sort of feral glee that was then quickly extinguished by a faint snarl as he shook his head with that foxy grin of his.__

__"The more things change the more they stay the same." he grumbled. With a sigh Naruto brought his hands up to rest on the back of his hand. He strolled around his sensei, heading toward the windows yet looking at the spotless floor of the office. If anyone else was in here, they'd think Naruto was entirely occupied with his shoes. He only stopped walking when his feet bumped against the wall, and his forehead gently followed to thump on the window. There he stood as he went into deep thought. In serious contrast to his usual self, quiet and unmoving.__

__In a way Kakashi was rather proud of his former pupil, to see him coping with a situation as dire as this. He wasn't bouncing around in excitement at the prospect of a fight. He wasn't crying at the thought of Sasuke going so far, or boasting about bringing the Sasuke home. He was thinking, really thinking, over the dilemma of having to kill someone who used to be his friend. It was an unpleasant thing to consider killing a former teammate, Kakashi knew that first hand. But if Naruto had to take down Sasuke to protect the village. . .__

__It was sad to think about no matter how much time would pass. In the past he tried bringing Sasuke back and convince him to be their friends again even when Sasuke could've killed him at the Valley of the End. He kept trying to do just that, and only saw how fruitless it was when Sasuke nearly killed Sakura. It was a miracle that the two of them were able to cooperate at all when Madara came back, and Kakashi fully expected them to try gunning for the other when the fight ended. Yet they parted, neither one going after the other. Kakashi remembered that when Naruto woke and was told that Sasuke disappeared, the look in his eyes was equal parts angry and quietly happy. He seemed to take solace in the fact that, for the time being, he wouldn't have to face that particular fight. Despite all that had happened, he didn't really want to kill Sasuke. He had once been like a brother to him, and even if they were enemies, that bond still meant something to Naruto.__

__But after the war ended, Naruto changed. Seeing all the death from the war made him a lot calmer, in a way. More focused. He was still the same old Naruto, still laughing with others and fighting with a grin, but he was a bit wiser, more aware of what it was he was fighting for. Every mission he took, every skirmish with bandits wasn't just for a paycheck or for the thrill, it was to help his village, his family. He had grown up not knowing a family, but with time he had become a brother to Sasuke and others of the Konoha Eleven, an adoptive son to Tsunade. Kakashi even saw Naruto as a son he had yet to have, and he suspected Naruto would be much closer to Sakura in due time. All the bonds he had forged meant a great deal to him, and he'd do what it took to protect those bonds. He fought to protect his family. He had seen how a family could be broken in so many painful and heartrending ways, and his resolve had become so much stronger to make sure his own family could be happy and safe.__

__Sasuke had left that family. __

__Sasuke had spat in the face of Naruto's family. Then he tried to kill Sakura, Kakashi, and according to Minato he would have destroyed Konoha if he hadn't had a change of heart at the last second. To anyone else Sasuke was still irredeemable and a monster who wanted to kill the innocent. In Naruto's eyes it made Sasuke. . .__

__Truth be told, Kakashi still wasn't sure how Naruto viewed Sasuke anymore. But Naruto could see the inescapable fact that Sasuke had attacked their people in the past, and killed several of them today. It wasn't pretty, but he saw the truth of the situation. He could take in all the details and see the world as it was, not as how he'd like it to be. The never-ending cycle of hatred that had existed throughout history was visible to him now.  
In the face of something this grim, only a few would have the resolve to stand up and fight. Going up against an Uchiha? The Last Uchiha? Most here wouldn't be able to take the pressure or handle the danger. But there was an aspect about Naruto that still hadn't changed even if war had saddened him with knowledge. Even if the world was dark and hopeless, the knucklehead would do everything that his unbearably thick skull could conceive of to change it for the better, to make it better. He didn't even think about the odds behind a fight all that much, he would just smash right through them. The difference was that now he did so with far more focus and precision, knowing full well what was on the line. He carried knowledge, power, and experience, with all the joys and sorrows they brought.__

__Naruto's gaze rested on the sight of Konoha on a quiet afternoon. There was a faint glint in his eyes, and Kakashi could tell that his former pupils knew what he had to do.__

__Naruto tore his gaze away from the view of his home, and Kakashi could see the weight on Naruto's shoulders, the understanding of what was at stake. Naruto's gaze slowly rose to meet Kakashis, and when they met, Kakashi could swear he was looking at his own sensei again.__

__"How many other people know about the ANBU's mission?"__

__"Me, the council, the medical team that operated, and now you."__

__"Okay. How soon can you fabricate a week-long recon mission for me to go near the north-western border?"__

__"I can have something first thing tomorrow morning."__

__Naruto nodded in approval. "I'll swing by as soon as I can, then I'll head out." Naruto swiftly picked up his jacket from the chair, swinging it around himself to slide his arms through the sleeves as he approached the door.__

__But before his hand touched the doorknob, Kakashi coughed loudly, stopping him.__

__"You'll be leaving the day after tomorrow Naruto, in the late afternoon at least."__

__"What!?" Naruto whipped around, glaring at his sensei. "I got to go as soon as I can! Do you expect me to sit around and do nothing!?"__

__"No no no, listen to me. I expect you to take a day off to relax and prepare. You never want to work yourself to the bone the day before a tough mission." Kakashi's own glare softened. "The well-being of the village is important. But your own well-being is just as vital. Take a day to think things over, make sure you have everything you need, eat a lot and sleep heavily. Spend some time with Sakura. Have dinner, talk to her."__

__"Aw shit." Naruto grumbled. "I gotta tell her about this now."__

__"Well, if you really wanted me to I could only tell her the "official reason" for your mission until you head out. But I don't need to tell you that Sakura won't buy any cover story I cook up."__

__"Of course." Naruto sighed, almost with a smile. "She's a crafty one."__

__"Indeed. So if she comes by looking for the truth, I will not in good conscience withhold it from her, and I don't think an army could keep her from finding out. So would you rather her hear the truth from me, or from yourself?"__

__Without a second of hesitation, Naruto shook his head.__

__"No, that won't be necessary. I'll tell her. As painful as it'll be, I wouldn't have it any other way." Naruto groaned as he reached a grim realization. "Boy that'll make dinner awkward won't it? 'Sakura I really loved the dumplings. By the way Sasuke showed up again out of nowhere and butchered a squad of ANBU, mind if I run off to kill him?' She won't like this at all..."__

__"Even if she doesn't, she deserves to know. Besides, she loves you more than anything. She'll probably only punch you into the stratosphere and then secure you to the wall so you can't get away."__

__Naruto chuckled. "Probably." His smile shifted into a smirk as he looked back at his sensei. He readjusted his coat, turned towards the door, and pulled it open to head out.__

__But Kakashi coughed to regain his student's attention as he got a funny idea.__

__"Naruto," Naruto looked back before he closed the door. "I bet you five bowls of ramen that you'll make it back in six days."__

__"Aww," Naruto pouted. "do you have so little faith in me sensei? That hurts."__

__"Oh no, I just think you'll get lost on the way back. That or get distracted by a village with a ramen shop." Naruto saw a smirk forming on his sensei's lips. "Unless you can prove me otherwise."__

__"Ahhh Kakashi-sensei you should know it's a bad idea for Hokages to make bets. I'd have thought you had learned from Tsunade." Naruto scoffed at his sensei, giving him a confident grin. "Six days? I'll be back in two."__

* * *

In the sky around the Uchiha hideout, thunder and lightning were as frequent as the clashing of blades.

Whenever the two swords scraped each other, divine bolts of electricity ripped through the air, shining in the sky and roaring with the fury of nature. The winds howled in the valley and around the mountaintops, thrashing the trees. The massive amounts of rain made it seem like waterfalls existed above the clouds, bathing the hideout, combatants, and the landscape.

But the chaos of nature was eclipsed by the power and terrible forces that were manifested by two twenty-somethings. One fought to defend life, the other to destroy it. One who struck with the wind wrapped around his sword, the other who's blade crackled with lightning. Both fought to kill, but only one would survive this night.

They lept back and forth across the towers of the hideout. With each jump they would move to strike, and each time they were countered or block by the other. Each time they attacked their exchange would displace the rain around them with the shockwaves their strength and speed produced. Sometimes only the moisture on the blades was shaken, but the radius grew larger and larger with each attack as the battle grew more fierce.

Naruto dashed up a tower, jumping from side to side before he launched himself diagonally off the tower like a human missile at Sasuke. Denting the wall, Sasuke nimbly jumped from his impromptu perch in a smooth arc that intersected with Naruto's flight path.  
The two came within arm's reach of each other, Naruto looking up at the madman who now attacked him with a mad glee. Sasuke swung down at Naruto's neck, while Naruto aimed to stab Sasuke's eyes. The weapons shot out, coming within inches of their targets yet scrapping against one another, barely missing their marks and hitting only strands of hair and rainwater. But neither was done yet.

Using chakra-enhanced strength Naruto brought his fist to Sasuke's face, yet hit only Kusanagi's sheath. At the same time Sasuke had aimed his leg at Naruto's stomach but instead collided with Namikaze's broad side. Neither was struck, but their blocks did not stop the considerable kinetic energy in the attacks. These simple strikes carried such force that they knocked the combatants through the air. Naruto and Sasuke were sent flying toward opposite towers, streaking through the rain with terrifying speed.

With several backward spins Naruto managed to reorient himself from the stomach-attack to land on his feet, cracking the thick stone into a circle with the force of his landing.

"Come on! Sakura always hit harder than that!" he shouted.

His memories of their training sessions made him grateful to have Sakura as a teammate, as did all the times she would stretch too fast after waking up, knocking him through the walls of their bedroom. Truly his endurance had increased considerably. If nothing else he could take a hit from his girlfriend.

Sasuke however was less fortunate. Naruto's blocked punch had still knocked him off-balance and sent him spinning. He was flying up through the air and into the tower, embedding him deep in the wall, upside-down.

Naruto saw an opening in the sloppy landing and channeled a jutsu into his blade, coating it in bright blue energy that flowed like water yet rushed like the wind. A jutsu he had adapted from the Flying Swallow technique. He took the grip in both hands, causing it the blue aura to flare with increased power. He quickly raised it overhead.

"Wind Style: Vacuum Sword!"

Naruto swung his sword with smooth precision, launching the sharp wind off the blade towards Sasuke. The attack soared through the air, blasting aside or slicing through the heavy rain with a horrid screech, shrieking in the night as it neared the Uchiha target.

_"Oh crap!" _With a mighty effort Sasuke dislodged himself of his crater-perch, springing out of the hole with a flip and landing on his feet. He readied Kusanagi in a back-hand grip, and the blade glowed a sky blue as he channeled his own element into his weapon, yet another variant of his old favorite.

"Chidori Beam!"

Out from the sword shot Sasuke's own elemental attack, a brilliant blue lightning slash that crackled and zapped as it zoomed through the air towards the Vacuum Sword. But instead of colliding like before, Naruto's attack completely extinguished Sasuke's jutsu and kept going, undeterred by the lightning element and shrieking through the air. Sasuke had hoped that a strong enough lightning strike would at least neutralize Naruto's wind.

But it was completely ineffective. The wind and lightning met, and the latter was almost swallowed by the former! If anything it just made the wind jutsu even stronger! But Sasuke still had his agility, and with it he soared right over the Vacuum Sword before it made contact. The slash cut through the tower like a hot knife through butter, coming out the other side without any loss in momentum. The attack left a perfect slice with such precision and focus that even Sasuke had to admit was impressive for the moron.

Said moron lept off his tower to meet Sasuke in the air, wielding Namikaze in a backhand grip that trailed a small stream of water as he moved. Kusanagi was ready to slice him to ribbons, and Sasuke secretly readied a kunai in his pocket to strike at Naruto's neck.

The two swordsmen rocketed through the air with such velocity and fury that it would appear to any observer that they had mastered the power of flight. The sky bent to their power, affected by the intense chakra in the air emanating from these two demigods. Back and forth they flew from one tower to the other, clashing with focused rage and killing intent, their swords clanging against each other, louder than the fierce winds and crashing lightning. Sparks flew, cuts and holes were being made in the towers surfaces as attacks from Naruto &amp; Sasuke missed the other. Their chakra levels grew and grew as they drew on more of their powers to match the other. As they were now, neither one of them were simple shinobi. They were each forces of nature.

This clashing of wills shook the very heavens. Lightning bolts crackled through the sky, and the rain grew heavier. Intense winds blew throughout the surrounding forest, shaking the trees and scattering dirt &amp; mud. All of nature could feel this fight, and it was terrified.

Sasuke's swipe at Naruto's chest was swiftly deflected by the same flicker on Namikaze that had slashed Sasuke's own arm, much to his frustration. But that hindrance did not slow him down in the slightest. With subtle precision he drew his kunai and aimed it right for Naruto's now exposed throat to bury the cold steel in his enemies flesh.

Somehow without even seeing the attack, Naruto quickly summoned a shadow clone that took the kunai's strike, blocking the weapon with its arm. Again it was like he could predict and react to the strikes before they even happened, just like a Sharingan.  
The clone managed to stay physical long enough to fling the original up at the opposite tower before dissipating in a puff of smoke. Sasuke's momentum carried him to land on the other tower while Naruto clung to the wall looking back at his opponent, only to realize how impossibly high they both were.

He had been so focused on the battle that he only just now noticed that they had been rising higher and higher during their fight. They had to be at least halfway up the towers by now. He could see the entire valley, covered in water and trees that were thrashed about by the terrible winds. The gigantic lightning bolts that snaked across the sky. He could see it all here. He could see well across the forests and nearby mountains to the horizon. The thick forests, a patch of brown and gray that had to be the small village he passed a while ago on the way here. But all his vision was attracted to a single point in the distance, where the faintest shape of a large mesa-like formation.

To Konoha.

With his enhanced vision he could just barely make out the familiar mountain range of Hokage Monument, with the faces of its leaders carved with exquisite detail into the rock-face. A sign for all in the village that their leaders, their beloved shinobi would be watching over them even when they went to the next world. But that could all change. Everything the people had worked so hard to build could be destroyed of it might burn to ash in the anger of an Uchiha.

_"Not a chance."_

He looked away from the direction of his home back at Sasuke, who continued to glare at him with those deep red eyes decorated by tomoe. Naruto calmed his mind and let his eyelids close, letting all distractions slip from his thoughts for the moment. He relaxed for the briefest of moments despite the weather and the battle. As he did so, a steady wave of chakra began to emanate from his body. The flow started small, so small and insignificant that Sasuke didn't even notice it. It was like a spark in a heavy rain, but as Naruto consistently proved he could create a raging inferno in the fiercest of storms. Nothing would stop him from fighting. Nothing.

Sasuke's eyes started to notice that flow of chakra from his enemy, and he felt a deep sinking feeling in his stomach. He knew Naruto was firing up again, only this time it would produce something big. His anxiousness wasn't because of the amount of the chakra, it was the origin of it. The spark wasn't Naruto's chakra, but the Nine Tailed Fox's. That beast that, when it's two halves were reunited, had given Naruto the power to annihilate Madara.'

It was at that moment that Naruto began to change. The air around him started reacting to his rise in power, distorting and waving around Naruto as if he was a raging fire, and small sparks appeared from nothing only to quickly disappear. Then an immense blast of air exploded from his position, cracking the towers surface beneath his feet. His entire body flared with a bright red flame so intense Sasuke could feel the heat despite the considerable distance between them. A crimson aura that was redirecting the rain around Naruto with its wind and making his coat flap in a newly created gale. Naruto's eyes settled on Sasuke, and the Uchiha saw that they too were changing, shifting from sky blue to a deep red. Sasuke knew eyes, and he could see unfathomable power in Naruto's. The kind that had obliterated Madara.

But of course, Naruto wasn't the only one with great power.

Slamming his palms together, Sasuke called upon the prowess of his eyes, the final form of the Uchiha's. The blood red Sharingan shifted, warping into the most powerful ocular jutsu the Uchiha wielded: The Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, a "gift" of Itachi's eyes. Sasuke's body flared with his own large aura, a dark purple flame that matched Naruto's own in intensity yet stood as its opposite. Naruto's was vibrant and warm, whereas Sasuke's was harsh and cold like his own heart. It was a cruel flame born of the hatred Sasuke embodied, and it released a ghostly howl as it grew, a whisper of death to all things.

Their auras mirrored each other in power, yet the source of that power opposed each other. Sasuke was fueled by hatred for Konoha, Naruto by a love of it. Being near each other only heightened their differences and fueled their resolves. But there was one crucial fact that they would both agree on even when trying to kill each other. They both knew it; neither one would stop until they were that knowledge in each others minds, they both decided to cut loose. Their chakra fires increased in size and intensity such that they were starting to shake the towers, rumbling the very foundations of the structure. But then, the fires from both of the shinobi silenced. They became deathly quiet. Their auras had drawn back into their users, focusing the spread out flames of chakra into dense sources of power.

Using that power, such might that had not been seen in centuries, the two slowly floated off the surface of the towers into the open air. Gravity did not pull them. The wind did not push them. They were masters of the sky.

Naruto's body was moving itself using the power of the fox to give him propulsion, acting as ever-shifting thrusters to flare in varying intensities to move him in certain directions. Sasuke meanwhile conjured up small wings from his Susanoo, his skill with manipulating the jutsu having increased to where he could create human-sized limbs and weapons to use.

As opposites to each other, their auras were reborn with a surge of power like raging wildfires.

Then, the air around them burst.

The sky rumbled.

The rain battered the forest and mountains as if waterfalls were falling from the clouds. The distant roar of thunder and the close crash of lightning rattled and scared wildlife in the entire Fire Nation. Whole villages huddled in shelters for fear of what horrible cataclysm was to come. Around the Uchiha Hideout trees were cracking and breaking from the sheer force of the wind. At this point it was no longer a normal storm, but divine wrath. Something of this magnitude had not been seen since Madara and the First Hokage met in battle at the Valley of the End, and even then this impossible tempest dwarfed that of so many years ago. Whereas back then it had been chakra volleys and techniques tearing the landscape a new one, this destruction was solely from two beings meeting, being in each others presence with their power on display.

Then it got worse.

A tremor rocked the land. Trees were uplifted from their spots. The ground cracked, upturned, and folded in on itself. The forests around the hideout were being crushed and swallowed up in a massive upheaval. Just one shake had upset miles of nature. But this wasn't an earthquake. No, this was a shockwave. A blast of air and force from the two shinobi fighting high above.

Every few seconds, two bright lights collided with each other around the hideout, each time shaking the land with increasing intensity. One light was red, the other purple. A few unfortunate mountain climbers saw the display from miles away, and they could barely follow the lights movements even from their position. The lights moved so fast that human eyes could scarcely track them. Every time those two streaking orbs hit, a massive wave of red and purple chakra exploded, louder than the storm in all directions from their clash, only for the lights to fly off in opposite directions or slide along each other before separating. Then they would circle back around to collide again, bouncing off each other as another shockwave exploded in the air. It was an awe-inspiring yet terrifying sight for those who could see it. Everyone in Konoha could feel it but were only able to guess as to what was going on, and only a few in Konoha knew what caused this upset in nature.

For Naruto, he was entirely too focused on the battle to notice how much of an effect it was having on the land around him. All he registered was the red eyes that mirrored his own in color and in conviction. He circled low around the more battered tower while Sasuke flew in a downwards serpentine pattern, each leaving red and purple light trails as they flew. Sasuke maneuvered around the slashes of wind sent his way, using his fire jutsu's to redirect them when he could. Naruto's superior speed made it easy for him to race past the lightning projectiles Sasuke would send back. So far neither had landed a single hit on the other with ranged attacks. Sasuke kept redirecting Naruto's attacks, and Naruto continued to zip around Sasuke's strikes. The only thing being damaged was their surroundings.

They zipped around the towers, using them as cover while firing their projectiles. Naruto dropped underneath a ball of flame while Sasuke managed to dodge a wind that sliced through his tower like butter and shot into the open air. Now he was flying straight at the other end of the hideout to shove Kusanagi through Naruto's chest. Naruto decided to cut out the middle man and respond in kind, bursting straight through his own cover with incredible speed, his coat serving as armor to smash through old stone chunks.

The move surprised Sasuke, so that by the time Naruto had coated Namikaze in wind Sasuke was barely able to activate Chidori on his own sword. They flew at each other with such speed that they left wakes in the rain, and scattered them even more with the air cones around their bodies. Sasuke held his sword low at his hip, aiming the tip of the blade behind him with both hands as he channeled the lightning. Namikaze was held at a perfectly horizontal angle at Naruto's side, humming as wind chakra flowed along the blade like water. These two shinobi with great skill and unrivaled power rocketed through the air with the very wind and lightning at their disposal. They flew, ripping through the sky.

Kusanagi chirped like a thousand birds while Namikaze howled like the wind. Sasuke slashed up while Naruto swung down, and their blades met each other with cataclysmic force. Lightning bolts shot all around them, diagonal lines of pure energy that crackled through the air and hit the towers, burning holes through the stone where it hit. Blades of wind scattered upon impact, rogue cutters that flew through the towers and the hideout to cut through them like the raindrops.  
Sasuke smirked as he observed the damage of his attack even as he and Naruto pushed against each other. From Kusanagi a centimeter-wide wave of energy flew up into the tower on the other end of the hideout, moving so fast that even his Sharingan hadn't noticed it. The beam had sliced through like nothing was even there, leaving a thin cut that stretched from the towers top all the way down to its base. It was a sight that pleased greatly pleased Sasuke. He was truly strong now if a single attack from him could wreak that kind of damage from this far away.

"Looks like I have what it takes to finally kill you Naruto." He nodded toward the sight of his attack. Naruto glanced behind him to see the damage, seemingly unconcerned with their bout, and smirked.

"Nice." Naruto chuckled with a hint of malice. "Though it does kind of remind me of that fight on the hospital roof."

"Because I almost killed you, no doubt." Sasuke sneered. Their swords creaked and screeched as they pushed against one another.

"Nope." Naruto looked back with a grin, surprising his opponent. "Because this is exactly like what happened to the water towers." Naruto's eyes glanced to behind Sasuke, down at the hideout.

"What!?" Sasuke looked down behind him where Naruto's own strike must have flown. In the roof of the hideout was a long and wide gash that stretched to the one end of the complex. It looked like the earth itself had split and shifted, carving a crevice into the hideout. Unlike his own attack, Sasuke could see that the slash hadn't stopped with the wall itself. He could see the ground and open air through the cut, and that it had struck a small portion of the tower as well. Almost the entire hideout, and a good third of the tower now had a titanic tear, all from Naruto's single slash.

Sasuke's eyes fell on Naruto's still grinning face. "If you," Sasuke snarled. "if you think this display will deter me from my pursuit, you are sorely mistaken Naruto. I won't stop fighting to gain justice for my clan until you and Konoha lie dead at my feet. No mere show of strength is going to stop me."

The smile on Naruto's face disappeared. Suddenly, Naruto looked at Sasuke with. . .It was something Sasuke couldn't place. The look in Naruto's eyes one of was sadness, anger, or disgust. There was some pained spark in his eyes that somehow said nothing of how Naruto felt, yet laid bare his entire motivation for coming here. It was the look of someone who knew Sasuke like a brother, who knew and understood what he wanted and what he believed in, knew everything Sasuke was fighting for, and rejected it all.

"Sasuke," Naruto growled as his gaze turned dark. "do a favor for both of us, for everyone in Konoha."

Naruto's body flared with a fresh surge of crimson chakra that started to push forward against Sasuke despite his own considerable strength pushing back. Sasuke channeled more lightning chakra into his blade, but Naruto's wind nature matched what Sasuke could put out.

"Take your quest, your sick pursuit of what you call justice," he spat out "justice" like the word sickened him. "all that bullshit you keep spouting."

The force of their struggle didn't seem to register on Naruto's face. In fact he looked far more calm than Sasuke had ever expected to see.

His eyes pierced Sasuke's soul with their icy intent. Naruto pulled back his free hand, clenching it into a fist that radiated with thin waves of bright red chakra.

"Take your lust for revenge and drown in it, you asshole!"

Naruto's fist shattered the air as it slammed into Sasuke's face. But it wasn't a normal punch. It was far, far stronger and backed up by a dense amount of chakra.

"Cherry Blossom Impact!"

The fist sent Sasuke flailing through the air with force that had previously obliterated stone. When it hit, red chakra zigzagged in all directions as it was expended in an instant. The arches intersected and weaved with each other, briefly forming ethereal net of chakra was sent into the air around his body, a red net that resembled a giant cherry blossom.

Naruto's mind had trouble registering what had just happened. It wasn't the sight of the cherry blossom-shaped net, though he'd be thrilled to tell Sakura he had at long last grasped her technique, it was the fact there was only air where his fist had struck. In the blink of an eye, Sasuke had disappeared from Naruto's spot, and from the hideout entirely.

One second he was roaring in pain right in Naruto's face, and the next he was just gone. In under a second Sasuke went from locking blades with Naruto to, Naruto guessed from how he landed the punch, spinning head over heels through the rain. Naruto's senses had been utterly thrown off by the shockwave he had made with the strike, but now he could see a massive hole in the tower, where Sasuke had no doubt flown through.

Even with his heightened vision Naruto couldn't see how far Sasuke had been sent from the force of the punch. But judging from the sudden distortion in the air that had appeared for a split around the body, Naruto could swear that Sasuke had gone supersonic the very instant that his fist had made contact, headed for parts unknown until he managed to come back. But considering the fact that it was a technique created by Sakura, it would take quite a while before even Sasuke would be able to slow himself down. The result was pleasing, but more than a little surprising for Naruto and Kurama. It was downright dumbfounding.

Terrifying, actually.

Naruto had tested the technique before on training dummies and boulders, but he never used it to this high a degree nor had he ever mixed in Kurama's chakra. He honestly didn't know how to process the magnificent thrust of the strike, and neither did Kurama.

_"I did not expect that." _Kurama said. He felt just as surprised as Naruto did.

_"Neither did I."_ Naruto agreed.

_"I always thought that you were just a wuss whenever the woman hit you. I never expected her strikes to be so. . .Terrifying."_

_"Well,"_ Naruto hesitated_. "you should know that I don't even have the technique mastered yet Kurama. That punch didn't have even half the power of what Sakura can use when going all out."_

_"Really?"_

_"Really."_

_". . .Oh."_

_"Yup. That's my girlfriend. Sweeter than cheese cake and tougher than diamonds."_

_". . .Sure. . .I am thankful that I can't feel anything whenever she hits you in training."_

_"Your concern for my well-being is truly touching." _Naruto sighed. His gaze rose to look back out at the empty blackness of the night sky.

_"I feel like he should be back by now. Shouldn't he?"_

"_How in hell would I know?"_ Kurama scoffed. _"You broke the sound barrier, not me."_

Naruto watched the area with a wary eye. The attack had definitely rattled Sasuke, but there was no possible way a sucker punch, bruising to an ego as it was, could take out someone who had been poisoned and stabbed enough to kill a normal man a dozen times over.

Naruto watched. He waited. For several minutes he gazed at the night air that was peppered by the rain. There was only the black void beyond the hideout.

Something wasn't right here.

_"Come on Sasuke, you know I'm not that stupid. You wouldn't get killed so easily." _Unless the velocity of his unscheduled flight had vaporized his body, Sasuke shouldn't have been defeated by an attack like that. But even though he expected Sasuke to come back with a vengeance, the skies did not see a screaming Uchiha crying for blood with a sword at the ready.

It was quiet. Too-

"_Don't you dare say it! Don't even think it you moronic pup!"_

"_What is your problem!? I'm not tempting the wrath of-"_

Suddenly Naruto felt the hair on his neck stand on end. The air around him was electrified and hot.

_"No way he worked that fast." _Naruto thought.

Naruto closed his eyes and attuned himself to the atmosphere, feeling with his sense for chakra. He could feel the movement of the winds with his elemental chakra, every direction they made around his body. He could feel the temperature, warm around him and cold everywhere else, mostly. Right now there were dozens upon dozens of large spots of heat around the hideout. Areas where the heat rose by thousands of degrees, easily.

And now they were moving. Towards him.

"Shit!"

Naruto immediately cut off himself off from Kurama's power. His red aura disappeared and gravity reasserted its hold on him, wrenching him out of the sky. He fell head first, diving straight towards the hideout's roof and increasing his velocity with a blast of wind from his legs. He felt the spots of heat home in on where he was seconds before, where they collided with each other in a massive eruption of fire and flame.

He felt the wave of heat at his back before the sound reached him. Even though he looked down at the roof, he could see the bright reds and yellows reflected in the puddles. Then the sound of the explosion reached his ears, the sound of the sky tearing apart left his ears ringing so that he could barely hear the rain and lightning over the roar. A few sparks raced nearby his face.

Despite the sensation, he forced himself to steady his fall, spreading out his arms and legs like he had been taught to do during an aerial insertion. With only seconds before impact, he swung his legs forward, turning his body so that his feet were aimed straight at the ground. He crashed straight through the roof like it was paper mache, scattering debris with his hit.

He kept falling, falling into blackness. The little illumination he had had outside was snuffed out in a cavernous dark room, and he could only just make out the floor below him, the floor that was very quickly coming to make his acquaintance. In the few seconds before he landed Naruto clenched his right hand into a fist, and slammed it into the ground just as he impacted the floor. He landed with the force of a falling boulder, shattering the ground in all directions for at least twenty feet with his terrific landing.

His breathing was slow and deep. His ears were ringing, and his knuckles felt sore from the blow delt to the ground. He could barely see in this place or guess where he was, and it smelled absolutely horrid. But on the plus side he had made a perfect three point landing!

_"That was too damn close."_

_"Focus boy." _Kurama barked, clearly less impressed with the impact. _"Where are we?"_

_"Just give me a second." _Naruto breathed very slowly as his ears recovered and the ringing died down. He rested on his knee, focusing on calming his heavily beating heart from just barely avoiding a gigantic explosion mere seconds before. With a few moments spent redirecting his chakra to steady his shaken senses, he was able to refocus himself on his surroundings.

The first thing he noticed was that, save for the raindrops coming in through the hole and slash in the roof, it was eerily quiet inside. Even his breathing and faint movement of his coat seemed to be swallowed up in the nothing of this place. It was dark, very dark. Any normal human would've had a lot of trouble adjusting to this place, and even Naruto's eyes hadn't fully adjusted yet. The faint light from outside was muddied in the great shadows cast by the chamber, giving the most pitiful illumination for him. The loud rain and thunder was reduced to soft taps through the hole.

When the dust finally settled, Naruto got the feeling he wasn't exactly in a good place to be. He quickly rose to his feet, and as he looked around him, that feeling spiked. Something in the room felt. . .Wrong. It wasn't any physical aspect of the room, though the cracks and scratch marks were unsettling. It was something in the air.

_"This place. It feels. . ." _Kurama growled, as if he felt something watching them. Naruto didn't blame him.

_"It feels sick." _Naruto agreed, finishing the Kyuubi's sentence. The feel of this room sent a shiver through his spine. It felt diseased. The entire chamber seemed to be filled with some kind of sticky, oily aura that was clinging to everything. It felt evil, stretching to the roof as some kind of rotted killer intent. Naruto felt like Sasuke was watching him, but of course he wasn't. Now, he was feeling the sensation from whatever happened here, most likely a battle that occurred years ago. Yet this aura had remained.  
This aura wasn't just floating around the place, it was embedded in the walls. It was as if the rage expressed in a battle had seeped into the foundations, infusing the room with this diseased atmosphere. Naruto realized that it wasn't the normal anger of a fight though, which was more of a mounting frustration that usually built up to a calm and focused ruthlessness from both combatants. This place was filled with hate. Deep personal hate for the opponent that spoke of terrible suffering and a destructive blood lust seeking revenge for something. This wounded anger, this decayed hatred was now part of the place. Almost as if it had a mind of its own, the entire chamber now hated. Not only that, but Naruto could swear that it hated him.

He tried shaking this sensation from his mind as he looked for Sasuke, but the feeling clung to his mind. He even felt in his body. Thousands of greasy, liquid hands were crawling up his feet, clawing at him. His shoulders felt heavy from something that felt like his coat had been drenched in something sticky that crept down his coat and around his collar.

There's nothing there. There's nothing there. There's nothing there.

Still he tried to ignore it, returning his attention to the battle at hand.

But it didn't work. He didn't, or couldn't, feel anything, no chakra or vibrations in the air that would indicate a threat through this black fog. But there was no reason Sasuke wouldn't be able to pull a surprise attack. This was his turf after all. But the only entrance that Naruto could see was the hole he had just made.

Though now that he was aware of his dark surroundings, and could focus past the hatred aura to an extent, he noticed that the hole wasn't the only source of faint light in here. Oddly enough, he had fallen through a section of the roof that had been struck by his clash with Sasuke. At least half of the roof had a rather large cut through it that stretched from the center, where Naruto stood, to the far-off wall of the chamber behind him.

Between him and the wall, the light revealed something rather odd: a gigantic stone chair only a few feet beyond the crater he had made.

_"The hell?" h_e mused. Rising from his crouch, Naruto crept away from the center of the impact to step into the dark. His eyes quickly adjusted to it so that now he could see the details of the chair.  
For one, it looked identical to the one on the roof, save that it was a great deal smaller and far more decrepit, covered in layer upon layer of dust. Yet it was strangely in far better shape than the one up above, with only a few scattered scratches and a little hole through the center, the latter was probably from a sword. The top of the chair was decorated with the red and white fan of the Uchiha. Unlike the rest of the chair, and the whole damn chamber actually, the symbol was completely spotless, almost glistening in the dull nighttime light.

It was kind of intriguing. Sasuke must come down here fairly often to keep that symbol as clean as it was. Though the symbols pristine condition only made the rest of the chamber look all the worse.

Now with his eyes fully adjusted to the darkness Naruto could see the full extent of the damage in here, and it was damn unsettling. The scratches he had seen before were like rats; for every single one you saw, there were a whole lot more you weren't seeing. There had to be hundreds of scratches and deep cuts in the walls and floor, a good number of which still had rusty kunai and shuriken stuck in the concrete.  
There were holes here and there as well as noticeable circular web-like cracks, both from particularly deadly strikes. Naruto could recognize the distinct scorch marks and cracked patterns from a Chidori in more than a few spots. Aside from electrical marks there were the black scorch marks produced from particularly hot flames that peppered the walls. With a snarl Naruto noticed many of them left burns that more closely resembled roasted flesh instead of lightly burned concrete. Those marks had from black flames, Amaterasu. This had definitely been an Uchiha-only battle.

_"Naruto, can you smell that?" _Suddenly Kurama chimed in.

_"What?" _he asked, sniffing the air. _"I'm only picking up ash and brimstone. Wait. . . Is that?"_

_"Copper."_

It was a very faint scent but Naruto could definitely smell faint traces of copper in the air, and as he looked closer at the scorch marks he knew what it was: blood. Dry, decayed blood that clung to the walls in wild splatters. Every single one were red highlights for the scorch marks and scratches. Some spots were puddles that hardened into near-black crusts. Others were long, thin streams that were almost transparent and colored a deep maroon. It was like Sasuke had decided to paint this place with the blood of his enemies, before he eventually ran out of enemies and then left it as this. . .Horror.

_"I guess we know who caused this." _Kurama said.

_"Yeah. A lot of these scratches had to be from Sasuke's sword." _Naruto ran his fingers along one.

_"Not just that. These Amaterasu scorch marks are very sloppy and scattered, not made with any real precision, not like Sasuke's."_

_"So you think whoever was using the technique was either deliberately missing or-"_

_"Or distracted, and considering Amaterasu can literally kill with a look the user might have been distracted by some damn serious pain I'd wager. Whoever Sasuke was fighting had to have relied on lots of kunai, shuriken, and probably genjutsu."_

_"Wait. . ." _Naruto suddenly stopped in his strolling around the chamber. Amaterasu usage below Sasuke's skill, genjutsu, and kunai. It all made sense. A battle this savage wasn't merely two shinobi fighting. It was a savage battle backed by serious, personal hate for the opponent. It had to be anger against someone close, like a teammate, a friend, a family member like a-

_"A brother."_ Kurama finished.

_". . .Yeah."_

Now it made all too much sense. The damage was from Sasuke's fight with Itachi years ago. The intense anger and rage, the rotted killer intent in this room was from that very battle. Naruto guessed that the hate that clung to the room was most likely from Sasuke. All he could feel that might from Itachi was. . .Well, nothing. He couldn't feel anything in the air that might indicate Itachi had ever been in this chamber. If there had been remnants of chakra floating around, they had been smothered by this pitch black murk.

All of this hate, this overwhelming anger, this hatred so unnaturally strong that it had seeped into the foundations of the chamber and almost give it a will of its own, all of it came from one person. Naruto knew anger very well, both from the fox's past influence and from his own rage. But this feeling was no roaring inferno, it was the smoking, charred remains of Sasuke's anger. Anger used to help him kill his own brother.

_"Well this is rather grim wouldn't you say Naruto?_ _Naruto?"_

Kurama's words went in one ear and out the other as Naruto strolled towards a patch of wall sporting a particularly large scratch, one at least four feet long. The scratch was decorated by a streak of blood that had hardened on the wall, looking almost like the shard of a crimson glass mirror. Naruto's raised his hand to the blood, gingerly running his fingers along it's uneven yet smooth surface as he stared at the red streak. The texture was oddly soft and sticky to the touch, but brittle, almost like the surface of a lollipop that had been left out for too long. But the smell of it was definitely not cherry. Instead, the scents of copper and salt flooded his nostrils. A smell he was all too familiar with.  
The contact caused the already delicate blood to fall off in tiny chips in the wake of Naruto's fingers. The chips shattered on hitting the floor, so quiet in their breaking that they didn't even echo in the slightest in the chamber. Naruto's touch had left four thin, clean streaks through the splatter. A bigger chunk fell into Naruto's palm, equaling it in size. Looking at it, he could see his own red, distorted reflection.

_"Brothers. . ."_

Is this what they all ended up doing, lunging at each other's throats when they were old enough? Weren't brothers supposed to look after each other regardless of circumstance? Instead these two smeared the walls with each others blood. Sasuke sought only to kill Itachi, making it the most important goal in his life from the day they formed Team 7. It had driven him to make ridiculously dangerous and stupid decisions that resulted in him turning his back on his home.  
Itachi meanwhile, had acted with the best intentions yet used the worst methods. He tried manipulating his brother into unintentionally killing Madara, and Itachi himself, to keep the truth of what happened a secret, loving his brother and yet trying to use him as a weapon. Naruto did actually like Itachi when they fought alongside each other in the war, but his methods made Naruto's skin crawl.

He never had, and unless he had a sibling he didn't know about, never would have a sister or brother. The closest he ever had was Sasuke years ago. At least, he had thought they were like brothers. They certainly bickered like Naruto thought siblings would, yet they had definitely cared for each other. They drove the other to improve and grow stronger. They'd joke around and tease each other, but they would unite and at least try to work together in goals like combat or removing Kakashi's mask.  
But were they actually anything like brothers? It was hard to tell whether there had been any sort of affection, or if had been a misinterpretation of their relationship on Naruto's part. He could still remember the look in Sasuke's eyes when Team 7 found him at Orochimaru's hideout.

That look in Sasuke's eyes still pissed him off. The way he had stood above them, looking down on people who still wanted him to come home with disgust. . .No it wasn't disgust, that would imply he saw them all as people. It was more like disinterested pity. He saw Naruto and Sakura fighting to bring him home, and couldn't be bothered to give a shit. Then he tried to kill them. Then he tried it again. And again, and again.

Naruto could see his scowl reflecting right back at him in the piece of blood, glaring at him in anger over clinging to such a thought for so damn long that it had almost killed him and his team. What kind of moron was he that he thought saving Sasuke after he had absorbed damn Orochimaru, tried murdering his own brother, joined up with Akatsuki to kill a fellow jinchuuriki, then tried killing Sakura and Kakashi!? How big of a baka was he!?

"Brothers. Give me a break."

Naruto's grip tightened on the blood chunk, shattering it like glass with almost no sound save for his growl. Shards fell to the ground, further breaking into tiny pieces that simply crumbled into red powder. Naruto shook his hand of the blood still resting in his palm. It was only when he finished that he noticed that his fingernails were far longer than usual.

"Damnit." he muttered.

"Careful _Naruto."_ Kurama warned. _"Yet another moment when my strength comes through by your anger alone. This makes it what, the fifth time?"_

Naruto shook his head as he reasserted control, returning his fingernails to their normal length._ "This time doesn't count. __**You**__ were messing with my head again even though you promised not to, you mutt."_

"_Something did tinker with your head boy, but it wasn't me." _Kurama let out a deep growl that surprised Naruto. He hadn't heard this kind of growl since the war, and it wasn't even directed at him. _"You were right. This place really does not like us. Or anything, really."_

"Well that's just perfect." he sighed. Naruto shook his head with a groan, and wiped off the the last of the powdered blood from his hand. He noticed it had a texture like white sand between his fingers, and promptly regretted noticing that nauseating detail. The sight or smell of blood didn't ever seriously disturb him, and he had in fact never payed as much attention to it as he had just now. He most certainly had never stared at his own distorted reflection in it.

"Screw this wall."

Naruto pulled his gloves tight in the midst of his frustrated stride. Closer to the center of the room where the light was, he felt his racing heart start to slow down. He didn't even notice it had been racing in the first place, but he knew it had to be this chamber working away at him, almost like it was egging him on to do something, to fight back he imagined. But it wasn't just pushing at him with anger and contempt. Hate from others was something he had learned to cope with very well, and no sentient dust-covered broom closet using decayed anger would provoke him to fight back.  
But the room hadn't attacked him head on. It was far more subtle than outright provocation. It had slipped around him, crept up and worked in a way very similar to Kurama's old machinations, messing with his emotions to get him riled up. But while Kurama usually, usually, did it to pound someone's face in with Naruto's hands, the room just seemed to be doing this because it wanted to spread into him, filling this new out-of-place being with its aura.

As far as he could tell. Naruto didn't have much experience psychologically evaluating sentient objects. He guessed it was like a virus, replicating and spreading itself inside of a new host until it was completely taken over. But from what he remembered, normal viruses didn't really have chakra. Or emotions.

"_They don't. You'd know that if you had payed attention in biology class."_

_"That stuff always went over my head."_ Naruto chuckled.

_"Moron. Look, this place is messing with your head. That's all that matters."_  
Naruto conceded his point as he stood near the strip of light.

_ "Fine fine. Can you keep it off me? I can't get distracted by my reflection in hardened blood when fighting Sasuke. He should be back in here any second now."_

_"I can't. It's not a genjutsu so I can't break its influence on you with my chakra."_

_"Shit. This won't be good for my mental health."_

_"I can shout in your ear and call you names if that helps. Just like old times." _Kurama chortled.

"Do whatever you can." Naruto double-checked his surroundings for anything unusual as the Fox started muttering curse-words to himself, as if to test them when the time came. Naruto happily left the tailed beast to his work while he scanned the chamber. It was smooth, eerily quiet, and apart from some of the worst decorating he had ever seen it didn't have anything physically weird about it. It was oddly well-preserved, a kind of decrepit stasis that told the grim story of what had happened in here. Where brothers had tried to kill-.

"You're glad you're an only child. You're glad you're an only child. You're glad you're an only child."

Naruto sighed, rubbing his temples. At least it was nice and quiet in here, save for the drips of rain. Yup, plenty of wonderful silence for him to think, and possibly go mad. If this place hadn't seen such a horrific battle years ago it probably would just be a giant unassuming chamber with a giant stone chair in the middle.

Yet in spite of that, Naruto saw an odd beauty in the chambers condition. It was a piece of history, possessing an odd sort of purity in how it was preserved. It had the same feel of the aftermath of many battles he had seen. It was almost serene in here, save for the metal hatches on the wall, the dried blood, and the-

Wait, metal hatches?

Naruto blinked several times to make sure it wasn't just the light playing tricks on him. Sure enough, when he looked around again, he saw the perfectly square shapes in the wall that looked undoubtedly like tiny hatches. They were all over the wall, spread out at regular intervals in three rows that circled the chamber. The hatches looked old, for they just as much dust on them as the rest of the chamber. They were even on the ceiling and arranged in circles that grew in size the close they came to the chamber walls.

"How the hell did I miss those?" Naruto muttered. Before he could investigate, he felt an all-too familiar presence from up above him, accompanied by the tone that spoke of deep anger.

"I didn't expect you to get in here."

Naruto looked up at the hole he had made in the roof, and found that Sasuke was descending through it, using his wings to glide inside. Just from a quick glance, Naruto could see a nasty bruise on Sasuke's cheek from the Cherry Blossom Impact. It was almost a perfect indent of his knuckles. Other than that Sasuke still looked like the brooding Uchiha that Naruto knew and. . .That he knew.

Naruto held his sword at the ready under Sasuke's piercing red glare. The Sharingan stood out against the purple glow of his slightly damaged Susanoo wings. The wings flapped once, then disappeared so that Sasuke landed on the ground with a quiet grace as if he had just finished a stroll. But his apparent ease didn't even begin to mask the rage on his face, which cast a sinister shadow on his features far darker than the chamber walls. As if to add to that, Sasuke slowly lifted Kusanagi, before spinning it to slam it into the sheath.

Then he brought his fists to his sides, white-knuckled. He wanted to continue this with bare hands. Naruto sighed as he collapsed Namikaze back into the sheath in his sleeve, before resting his arms at his side. This fight would get ugly.

"I didn't want you to get in here." Sasuke snarled. "I wanted this place to remain as it was, and you just smashed through the roof and started touching everything." The look on his face was only slightly uglier.

"You do realize it was your fire trap that forced me to crash in here?" With a deceptively relaxed smirk, Naruto clenched his fists tight to crack his knuckles while Sasuke looked on with a scowl. "Oh don't give me that look. It's not like I wanted to end up a place like this. The interior decorating isn't exactly-"

Naruto's senses felt a burst of killer intent at his right side, and out of the corner of his eye he noticed the red glint of the Sharingan. Sasuke had closed the distance between them faster than the eye could see, and his leg came swinging within centimeters of Naruto's neck. Naruto managed to swing his neck out of its path by channeling his inner limbo skills to dodge under the strike, looking straight up at the leg that would've no doubt dislodged his throat.

"You can be such a," Naruto felt his palms land on the floor. "dick!" He brought his legs up in a back flip. He flipped through empty air, for Sasuke had seen his maneuver coming and swung his own leg out of the way. Naruto spun back through the air and landed in a ready stance with his arms raised. He certainly needed to do so, because Sasuke was already attacking again, zipping from side to side before he swung his left arm, flickering with electricity, at Naruto's neck.

"No chance Sasuke!" Naruto said. His right arm shot up, blocking the strike with the forearm. His arm shifted under the strike and stung as the electricty struck, but his defense held. He stretched out the arm, rotating it to grab the underside of Sasuke's own arm. Before he could be countered, Naruto struck at the back of Sasuke's leg, knocking him off-balance and leaving him open for Naruto's left fist to strike his face where the bruise was. Naruto felt warm liquid splashing his glove, followed closely by red drops joining the rain on the decayed concrete from Sasuke's mouth. Naruto tried to ignore the smell that assaulted his nose, and grabbed Sasuke's upper arm. Naruto wrenched him off his feet, turning to spin Sasuke overhead and bring him crashing into the ground.

But Sasuke landed with his feet slamming into the concrete, hunched over but still very much in the fight. He yanked Naruto in close by his left arm still held in the morons grip, pulling him in so that Sasuke was able to slam his free arm into Naruto's face, and his knee into Naruto's stomach. The blows released Naruto's grip and sent him back skidding several dozen feet.

Naruto tore up the concrete as he slid back to a sudden and unsteady stop. He shook his head, clearing himself of disorientation, and spat out a spot of blood just as he saw Sasuke running straight at him with a mad snarl. Naruto raised his arms and spread his legs, rooting himself to the ground.

Sasuke came at him hard and fast. Striking and striking at Naruto, who kept stepping back and dodging around the strikes he couldn't redirect. His forearms parried dozens of punches that came one after the other in seconds, practically instantaneous attacks. It was a flurry that kept him from retaliating and forced him on the defensive.

"_Naruto!"_ Kurama said. _"What the hell is happening? You're moving a lot slower than before!"_

"_Room's influence. Messing with my focus. Feels like I'm half asleep. Sasuke's smug face isn't helping either."_

"You seem to be having trouble Naruto." Sasuke sneered, landing a light jab at Naruto's rib cage before ducking under a kick aimed to his own nose. "Seems like you're slowing down," Sasuke countered with his own roundhouse kick aimed at Naruto's head only to hit the arms, sending Naruto skidding to the side and cracking the ground again. "while I still have plenty of fight left in me. I'm fueled by the anger of the Uchihas, and nothing you're going to do can stop me. I will have vengeance for my clan!"

Just when Naruto thought that his defense would've held all day, he just noticed how slow his body really felt. His movements lagged behind. He felt a sticky oil clinging to him tighter than ever and weighing him down. It wasn't much, but it was enough to make Naruto slow. A mere second of in action against any other foe would've gone unnoticed, but against Sasuke Uchiha that second was all he needed.

"Too slow." he whispered, before he showed just how brutal an Uchiha could be.

Naruto made a blind jab at Sasuke's face only to hit empty air. Sasuke took that as a perfect opportunity to grab Naruto's arm, to use his own move against him. He gripped just below Naruto's shoulder, and swung him overhead in a perfect arch to slam him headfirst into the ground, burying him up to his shoulders.  
Before Naruto could push himself up, Sasuke spun around to slam his foot into Naruto's stomach. The blow knocked Naruto out of his position, but made his head into a plow that dug through the tough ground, falling onto his back just as Sasuke appeared behind him.

Naruto tried for a kick at Sasuke, but he moved too fast and grabbed Naruto by the ankles, wrenching him out of the ground. Then Naruto was brought right back down, crashing through the concrete as Sasuke slammed him down again and again. Three times Sasuke broke the floor with Naruto's body before he simply dropped him like a corpse.

Sasuke cracked his neck as he looked down at Naruto with a small frown. The Sharingan detected a gathering of chakra around Naruto's right hand, a growing whirlwind of energy as the beginning of an all-too familiar jutsu. Sasuke stomped down on Naruto's head, loudly pushing him back down into the floor before he could get back up.  
Sasuke summoned a kunai from his sleeve and twirled it in hand as he bent to one knee. Sasuke pulled back the sleeve of Naruto's annoyingly durable coat to show the long gray sleeve of his shirt beneath. He quickly pulled that back as well so that Naruto's bare forearm was exposed.

"No chance Naruto." The kunai was thrusted down through Naruto's arm. The flesh and muscle squelched as metal pierced through. Sasuke could hear a suppressed grunt from Naruto at the pain. His hand jerked and twitched as blood flowed from his arm, and Sasuke's eyes saw the small spinning mass of chakra lose its structure, fading away as Naruto's hand lost all control.

Then Sasuke bent down to grab Naruto's collar and belt. He lifted him up over his head, then brought Naruto slamming down into the ground face first, smashing him at least two feet into the floor.

"God this feels good." Sasuke chuckled. But he was not finished by a long shot. He moved so fast that Naruto had barely moved from his newly created concrete bed before he was grabbed by his neck and lifted up in Sasuke's hand, which clenched down on his windpipe like a vice.

Naruto started to choke in the grip, struggling to pry apart Sasuke's fingers to no avail. For a moment Sasuke simply watched while Naruto struggled to breath, hearing the moron's quiet choking with a subdued expression of rage. He was loving this, but he wanted more before he went for the kill.

"Tell me Naruto, do you think you're strong? Do you think you can actually stop me?"

Naruto choked out his answer, trying to pry himself free but unable to break the hold. "Is. . .Is this a trick question?"

For a moment Sasuke looked at his former teammate, calm.

Then his entire being was filled with anger so intense that it actually hurt Naruto's senses to be near it. But that pain didn't hurt nearly as much as when Sasuke started savagely punching his stomach. Punch after punch came while Sasuke kept growling like a wild animal. Each punch hurt more than the last as Sasuke acted less like a former shinobi and more like a crazed madman out for blood. Naruto was left panting from the barrage, made all the worse by his lack of breath.

"This will hurt." Sasuke leered at Naruto, showing a sadistic glee that disoriented Naruto as much as the blows he had been receiving. The toothy grin and sick spark in Sasuke's eyes made him realize just how much Sasuke was loving every second of this. Just when it looked like it was over he was dropped to his feet. Naruto could hardly stand, and then Sasuke's fist hit his jaw.

He was sent spinning through the air of the chamber. He couldn't think through the pain of all those blows, couldn't formulate some plan to fight back. Whenever it looked like he had a free second he was hit by a barrage of ferocious anger from Sasuke. Slowly he felt himself fall from his flight, hitting the ground as his head and shoulders were again made into a plow for concrete.

He felt himself flying back up, only slightly lower than before.

Then he hit the ground again, digging another small trench with his head before he was back in the air, each time feeling more and more fatigued. Over and over he bounced off the ground, each time making new deep gashes in the floor. He was the smooth rock bouncing across the lake.

Eventually the rock had to stop bouncing, as did Naruto. He stopped when his back slammed into the thick wall of the chamber. It was cracked in all directions from the force of his landing, from the floor all the way up to the ceiling. Chunks of wall fell out around Naruto, who was now embedded several inches into the thick wall. The entire hideout shook from the impact, and Naruto felt like an entire mountain had been dropped on his body. He was barely retaining consciousness and blood dripped from the side of his mouth. For the first time in what felt like several hours of savage beating, he could breathe. It felt so damn good to breathe. It felt like he was wearing a lead vest on his entire body, but he could breathe again.

"I'm not done!" Suddenly Sasuke was right on top of him, and slammed his knee into Naruto's stomach. It knocked the wind out of him and made him bend forward in pain. That single strike further cracked the wall around his body, and dug him deeper into the concrete with such force that it felt like a tailed beast stepping on his body. His vision blurred in pain. He hacked up blood. He felt his neck go limp, only to be picked up by his hair so that his head was shoved into a stable position in the wall. The glowing red Sharingan stared deep into his soul with utter contempt.

"I am so sick of your big mouth!" Then Sasuke's fist his face, breaking the concrete around his head again and pushing him further into the wall.

"You're **weak**!"

Then he punched again, pushing Naruto's head back several inches with his neck trailing behind.

"All you do is make jokes and smirk at me like this is all a **game** to you!"

And again.

"You're so arrogant, thinking you can beat me like this without a true killer intent! Give me a real fight Naruto! Make me work for the **killing **blow!"

And again.

"That's all I wanted, to finally settle the **score** between us and see who was the **better** man. But you keep **grinning** and **joking**, like you can win this battle by running your idiotic **mouth** until my ears **bleed**! But if you don't fight like you mean it, you will **die** knowing you failed to protect your **damn** village!"

Over and over Sasuke struck Naruto's head to embed him deeper and deeper into the thick wall. Each blow broke more of the wall, creating deep cracks centering around his head, which was pushed the furthest into the wall, followed closely by his neck and the rest of his body.

"Would you really **die** to protect a **home** like Konoha!? That place killed my **brother!** It made a **monster** of Itachi! It left me to fend for myself when I lost **everything**! Yet you'd give your **life** for a system that turns its most loyal into monsters and leaves **orphans** in the **streets**!?"

Sasuke's fists glowed with light blue chakra. Moving like tiny flames from the backs of his hands. Then with a spark from his elemental affinity, the flames were focused into jagged sparks and crackles of energy.

"If you'd die to protect a place like that, then I have three words for you. . ." Sasuke wrenched Naruto forward by his coat's giant collar, briefly freeing him from the crumbling wall.

**"Go!"** Then he was forced straight back in when Sasuke's electrified fist slammed into him. The energy increased the speed and strength of Sasuke's blow, so much that it created a shockwave of chakra that shattered more of the wall around Naruto, dislodging more chunks of it.

**"To!"** Naruto felt Sasuke's iron fist hit him again, much stronger than before. Then the electricity hit him immediately after, shocking his entire body with countless volts. Giant bolts zapped the wall, charring it from floor to ceiling.

Then Sasuke's fist crackled with even more power, this time screeching with an unearthly sound. It was the sound that Naruto had heard countless times in his nightmares, haunting him since the war of what that sound would bring. Now it was here again, and aimed to take his life. The sound of one thousand chirping birds filled his ears. His eyes drifted open to see that jagged orb of electricity around Sasuke's hand.

Chidori was here for him.

**"HELL!"** Chidori shot forward, trailing sparks that zipped along Sasuke's arm as it raced at Naruto's skull. Blood splattered on Sasuke's hand and splashed onto his cheek. His hand plunged through the rest of the wall like a hot knife through butter, until the bloodied Chidori burst outside into the open air.

Icy cold raindrops washed over Sasuke's bloodied hand and fizzed when exposed to the Chidori. Slowly the jutsu was dispelled. The sound of chirping birds faded against the loud rainfall. Sasuke tried shifting his hand back, brushing against the charred and cracked concrete hole. Some of the blood remained on his hand, now dry and cracked from the Chidori's power.

The sound of rain and heavy winds rushed into the chamber, breaking the deathly silence in the dark room. Yet the sounds of nature did not meet a single victorious Sasuke. He did not grin when his jutsu had drawn blood. In spite of it being impossible, he had missed.  
The Chidori had been racing to pierce the moron's skull, yet it had only struck deep into the wall where it now stayed. The blood on his hand was not from the killing blow. Where there should be a bleeding hole in Naruto's head there was only a deep horizontal cut across his forehead.

Blood flowed freely from the cut, flowing to wrap around his eyes like a domino mask. Two thin, long streams of blood went down his cheeks and dripped from his jawline, falling on Naruto's black shoes. Aside from the cut Naruto was still intact, and much to Sasuke's displeasure the moron was still breathing, however labored. He was still alive and had enough strength to dodge death.

Somehow Naruto's stabbed arm had shoved its way through solid concrete. It had moved just fast enough to grab Sasuke's forearm and pull it aside before he would've been killed. Now his arm was stuck in Naruto's grip, and he couldn't free himself. Despite the vicious beating and gaping stab wound, Naruto had enough strength to keep Sasuke in place. His arm was shaking, bleeding, his breathing was mostly him coughing up blood. He had been stabbed and electrocuted by Kami knows how many volts to the head.

So how could he have moved so fast to redirect the Chidori, and still have enough strength to hold Sasuke in place!?

"You. . ." Naruto hacked up another wad of blood. "Missed."

"I won't miss a second time Naruto." Sasuke moved his arm, only to find himself unable to get free from Naruto's grip. Naruto seemed to notice the strain on Sasuke's face, staring into the red eyes of hatred. Naruto saw the swirling rage in Sasuke.

Through the intense fatigue and pain Naruto could still see those red lights like lighthouse beacons through the fog. Those two lights were of an insane, piercing rage, blinding in their intensity.  
But something about this was different. The eyes that had gleamed with sadistic pride when pummeling him into the wall were far more focused than the eyes he had seen when Naruto had first landed on the roof.

"I. . .Was one. . .Of those orphans. . .Sasuke." Naruto panted. "I. . .Was abandoned. . .Just like you."

"So why defend it!? Why would you die to protect them!?"

"Because. . .They accepted. . .Me."

Sasuke's eyes widened, looking at Naruto like was completely insane. Then those eyes narrowed in rage once again.

Rage. . .

It always came back to anger with Sasuke.

No matter how many times they pleaded with him to come home, to stop his quest of revenge before it destroyed him, his anger would always take control and drive him further away. He had rejected and hurt his friends because of that anger.

Anger was Sasuke's fuel. But what Naruto in the Sharingan before him now wasn't for the death of his clan. The look in Sasuke's eyes was far more focused and cold. This was something honed to a razor edge. Naruto just realized the look in Sasuke's eyes had only changed when Sasuke had landed in the chamber. Something had changed in him.  
Then again this was where he had first fought Itachi and finally had his revenge. Itachi's death had been the point when everything had changed. His powers, his motivation, his goal.

What even was his real goal?

Revenge, of course.

First he wanted to avenge his clan on Itachi.

Then he wanted revenge for everything done to his clan.

Now all he wanted was to burn down the only home he ever had.

"Sasuke, h_ow can you live with yourself? Here you are killing ANBU and talking about destroying Konoha even after fighting your own brother to the death. You're trying to destroy all that he gave his life to protect. Can't you see that he'd be heartbroken at what you've turned into?" _Naruto still couldn't focus with that slick oil clinging to him, sticking to his clothes and his skin.

And in Sasuke's eyes he could still see the man he had once thought a brother, the mind of his friend flickering inside the hundreds of layers of hatred and blind rage. He could see how this man had gone down his own dark path even when friends and family had urged him to return home.

If only Itachi could see him now.

_"Wait. . .Itachi." _

"You'won't win Sasuke," Naruto coughed again as his speech was ragged.  
"by feeling rage on behalf of someone who willingly gave their life for the village you're trying to destroy."

Sasuke's face turned into a deadmask.

"What the hell did you just say." He had lost all traces of enjoyment for fighting the very instant Naruto finished talking.

_"Kurama, start healing me. Now!"_

_"Been doing it since you hit the wall. Your internal bleeding should have stopped by this point." _Naruto refocused his attention on Sasuke, whom seemed to be struggling to understand what he had just heard.

Naruto spat out another wad of blood onto Sasuke's face.

"You're raging over the death of the Uchiha, trying to get 'justice' or some crap like that. But you're really looking for revenge because of Itachi. That's all that really matters to you anymore."

Sasuke remained silent.

"But did you ever stop to think how Itachi would feel if he saw what you're doing?" Naruto pushed Sasuke's arm back. Centimeter by centimeter he moved the hand that had almost impaled him, gaining more ground as his chakra rose.

"I ran into him during the war. I could see he was a good man underneath the pain for what he'd done. I know he would've become Hokage one day if it wasn't for Danzo. I could feel and see how much the village meant to him. He loved it all so much that he gave up his life as a shinobi to protect Konoha and his little brother." Suddenly Naruto's eyes flashed red. His grip tightened even more, causing Sasuke to wince at the pain as Naruto's voice dropped to a monstrous growl.

"Do you hear me now Sasuke!? He gave up everything to keep you and the village safe. Now here you are destroying yourself because you refuse to move on, and gearing up to destroy the village!"

"Don't you dare think to lecture me on my brother!" Sasuke hissed. He channeled more electricity into his arm, stunning Naruto's hand just long enough to loosen his grip. That was all Sasuke needed, and he kicked off Naruto's stomach to go flying back through the chamber.

"You didn't know him!" Sasuke pulled up a sleeve to reveal a summoning seal inscribed on wrappings around his wrist. There was a large puff of smoke around his arm, and a gigantic fuma shuriken appeared in his hands.

"I know you're going against everything he wanted!" Naruto wrenched his other arm from the wall. Despite the pain it caused him, he pulled out the kunai in his right arm, causing another spurt of blood.  
Then he retracted his legs and pushed himself off the wall with a burst of wind chakra from his feet to finally escape from the Naruto-shaped indent. With his injured arm he made a sloppy roll on the floor.

"I know he wanted you to come back to the home he loved!" Naruto stumbled into a sprint straight at Sasuke.

"Shut the hell up!" Sasuke screamed. He held the fuma shuriken behind him. The edge of the metal crackled with electricity before it was thrown, spinning fast enough to rival a chainsaw's rotational speed.

Naruto coated his uninjured arm in a layer of wind chakra. He dashed into the weapon's flight path while swiping back and forth with his hand, firing off several slices of wind to keep Sasuke busy. Just before the shuriken would've sliced him in half, he slid along the ground beneath the weapon's path. He thrust his left arm up into the weapon's center hole and gripped where the metal was dull, stinging his hand with the lightning still circling the metal. But he pushed forward because those wind blades wouldn't occupy Sasuke for long.  
The wind around his arm spread to the shuriken, neutralizing the lightning to make Sasuke's weapon his own. Naruto shaped the chakra to coat the weapon and extend its range by creating elongations of the blade made of pure wind. He twisted on his feet in a perfect circle, pulling the shuriken along to redirect its momentum right back to Sasuke, increasing its speed with the wind chakra.

"Make me!" Naruto shouted.

Sasuke had just avoided the wind blades only to see the gigantic weapon racing ten times faster than he had thrown it. Naruto had redirected and empowered his own weapon in seconds flat. Sasuke leaned back, turning into a perfect L-shape as the augmented shuriken passed over his chin, screeching like an all too familiar jutsu he had seen Naruto use in the war.

Sasuke quickly rose to see Naruto flying at him with a single burst of wind chakra from his feet. Naruto came in high and fast, arm and legs swinging at Sasuke's head level. The first kick came within inches of his chin, then the punch struck his jaw. Sasuke responded with an elbow to Naruto's gut, briefly knocking the jinchuuriki back. Naruto skidded to a halt to see Sasuke swinging a leg down aimed at his neck. But Naruto rolled to the side, avoiding the kick that broke the floor. He threw the kunai used on his arm back at Sasuke, scratching the shoulder just enough to make Sasuke flinch in pain.  
Before Sasuke could adjust, Naruto's fist came at his jaw again. His Sharingan could see it coming this time, and he shifted his head in time with the strike to greatly lessen its blow. He spun back around to slam his own fist down on Naruto's head. Naruto's hand slammed on the ground, cracking the floor and stopping his descent. Sasuke came at him again from the side but Naruto made another burst of wind chakra from his feet, launching him straight up to hit Sasuke's face with his elbow.

"Ugh!" Sasuke fell back while Naruto spun up to his feet. "I'll make sure Chidori pierces your heart this time!" Sasuke's left hand ignited with lightning that chirped with the sound of one thousand birds.

"And this time I'll burn out your corpse as I rip your heart from your chest!" Then the chidori's blue bolts were wrapped in black flames. On top of the sounds of chirping birds there was now the quiet roar of a fire, the fires of Amaterasu. Sasuke burst forward, scattering dust as his jutsu trailed lightning.

"Chidori didn't work at the Valley of the End, and it won't work here!" Naruto responded, raising his left arm to summon a swirling mass of chakra into his hand that quickly formed into a large Rasengan. Then he funneled his own wind nature into the jutsu. It spun far faster than a normal Rasengan with the wind's influence, and grew four glowing white blades on its surface. Even when using his left hand he could form one of these in only a few seconds. Which was good, because Sasuke was almost on top of him. Naruto responded in kind, shooting forward and drawing back his good arm.

"Black Flame Chidori!"

"Wind Release: Rasengan!"

The jutsus crashed into each other, scattering lightning bolts and wind blades throughout the chamber. Black flames pushed against pure wind as the two shinobi fought for dominance. Neither one gave an inch and only further damaged the room with their struggle as the screech of birds and howl of wind. With each second the clash grew more and more fierce until it started to damage both Sasuke and Naruto.

"You know nothing of what my brother wanted!" Sasuke shouted through the strain.

"I know Itachi gave up everything to protect his home! You're practically spitting on his grave with every thought you have of destroying his old home!"

"The home that used him as a puppet and tricked him into killing his own clan! The village manipulated him!"

Naruto twitched as tiny bolts of electricity zipped around him, shocking him as they passed. Sasuke felt small swirls of condensed chakra slice his arms. Unlike the Valley of the End, neither of them were held back by friendship. They were striking to kill, and that included underhanded tactics. Sasuke summoned another kunai from his sleeve, going unnoticed behind the small storm in front of him. With Naruto in arm's reach it was an ideal opportunity to strike.

But at that exact moment, Naruto extended a kunai from his own sleeve and swung up just as Sasuke jabbed at his chest. The weapons met, and the sloppy angles of attack knocked the weapons out of their hands.

The two of them had put too much strength and weight into those failed attacks, so they both lost balance. The jutsu's lost their intricate structures. Chidori broke apart into hundreds of bolts that struck the floor and walls with large scorch marks, while also zapping Naruto and Sasuke.  
The bolts stung them and slowed their movements in pain. But while Sasuke received the brunt of the jutsu and couldn't fall back, Naruto had just enough distance from the Chidori so he could dive forward, behind Sasuke. He slid along with a burst of wind chakra from his feet, and landed on his back with his Rasengan aimed up at Sasuke.

The shell of his jutsu cracked and burst, releasing the energy within all at once. From Naruto's hand there came a blinding explosion of chakra. Blades of wind shot and zipped in all directions, but the center of the explosion was burst of pure chakra that slammed into Sasuke's back.

Sasuke flew like a ragdoll, crashing through the old stone chair that had been so well preserved for years. Chunks of concrete scattered with his impact, and dust fell all around him as he landed painfully on his back. He made a note to make sure he took his time with Naruto's torture for wrecking the chair. Sasuke swung himself up onto his hands, then sprung up back onto his feet and launched himself up and over the demolished throne, landing in front of it to continue the fight.

But Naruto wasn't anywhere to be seen.

Then the feeling of a foot burying into his back alerted Sasuke to the idiot's position. But he couldn't act on the knowledge as he stumbled head over heels and slid along the floor, kicking up dust and stones in his path. He let out a demonic growl and slammed his hand into the ground. The fingers punched through the floor, dragging up more stones and leaving twenty foot long claw-like scratches through the floor. Sasuke came to a pained stop, resting on a knee before he dislodged his hand from the ground.

He shook off the dust and clenched his fist to refocus his senses. His anger honed them to a razor edge, and only grew sharper when he saw Naruto, almost looking down on him as if he was beneath the dope. He stood in front of the Uchiha throne, dusting off his coat and wiping his face clean of the ceased blood flow, like it was a leisurely day for him. The look in his eyes was calm, almost bored when he gazed at Sasuke.

"Listen to yourself Sasuke." he grumbled. Sasuke snarled at his words, yet Naruto continued.

"Itachi sacrificed everything he ever had for Konoha. Yet here you are trying to destroy that home, even after learning the truth about him." Naruto's eyes flickered somehow. For a second Sasuke thought he could see pity in the fool's eyes, and he loathed that pity with every fiber of his being.

"That home was what made him kill our clan." Sasuke rose to his feet, baring his teeth at Naruto. "It made him into a monster and then banished him as a patsy for their schemes."

"He knew what he was getting into Sasuke. He knew what would happen, and he chose to kill his clan if it meant keeping the village intact. Sasuke, he willingly sacrificed everything for the village!"

"NO! They made him turn against his clan and massacre them in their beds. Men, women, and children died at his hands because the village discriminated and distrusted us for something that wasn't even our fault! For that I will make sure every single person in Konoha will suffer the same fate! I will not reset until ever last villager and shinobi understands how my clan suffered as I cut them all down, one by one!"

Suddenly Sasuke grinned a bestial grin as something dawned on him. He was so sick of Naruto's lecturing, of using Itachi against him. He was fighting dirty now. He didn't care about Itachi's wishes at all, he just wanted to use his brother's memory against him. All that talk about Itachi becoming a Hokage and loving the village were filthy lies. Now it was his turn to use the memory of something Naruto loved against him.

"Naruto, can you guess who will die first?" Sasuke asked. Naruto's eyes were neutral in response, yet Sasuke could see a glimmer of anger in those eyes. Naruto crossed his arms, remained silent, and Sasuke took that as a signal to continue.

"Kakashi." Sasuke hissed. "I will remove the Sharingan that made him into a cheap copy of my clan. Then I will rip out the other one to leave him a blind fool like he always was, until I end him with my sword plunging through his heart. I'll make sure to slit his throat first though to make sure he shuts up."

Naruto said nothing, though his eyes narrowed.

"Next I will go after my former friends, the rest of that ridiculous Konoha eleven. I'll chase them down like dogs and slaughter them one after the other, until there's nothing but a trail of bodies behind me. I imagine that Rock Lee's last moronic breath will be about the 'power of youth.' Perhaps Shikamaru will finally show some emotions when I run him through the heart. I'll make sure to give special attention to that cheap replacement you got for me. What was his name? The dull, emotionless one who attacked with cheap sketches? Ah yes, Sai. I'll enjoy seeing him try to make calligraphy without any hands."

Sasuke's grin widened. "I imagine Hinata will die pleading for you to save her."

Still Naruto didn't say anything. But his hands tightened their grip on his arms.

"Of course, I'll be saving the best for last." Sasuke chuckled. At that exact moment, Naruto's lips parted the tiniest bit, showing the glinting white teeth. Sasuke couldn't hear it, but Naruto had started growling.

"Once everyone lies dead at my feet, the last one to die will be **her**." Sasuke's eyes glowed blood red as he grinned at the fool who dared to insult his brother and the Uchiha clan. He denied their deaths as a tragedy, but he would know the pain of losing everything.

"But I won't kill her, no that would be too easy. I'll be using someone else for it." Sasuke's eyebrow arched as an idea came to his mind. "Once you lie defeated at my feet, I will ensnare your mind under my Sharingan. You'll be my puppet. I'll make you see the life drain from her eyes. You will see how she looks back in horror when she dies, at **your** hands."

Naruto's eyes opened wide, staring at Sasuke with a blank stare. His lips that had curled into a fierce frown were now just still, relaxed on his face as he looked on.

"Tell me Naruto, how does that sound?" Sasuke chuckled.

Naruto did not move.

He did not snarl, and he did not shout.

He did not speak a single word.

Yet with the look in his eyes, he screamed louder than any tailed beast or storm ever had. The world around him slowed and lost its color. Despite his greatest efforts the black oils of the room still clung to his mind, weighing him down into a wide awake nightmare of his own making.

* * *

_Fires stretching across the village. Houses reduced to black smoking rubble. Streams of blood in the streets. The sound of people running, screaming, begging for mercy. _

_The metallic wail of a blade silencing the villagers. Hokage Monument destroyed, the faces obliterated and reduced to craters. The Hokage Office in flames._

_The smell._

_The smell of copper. On his face, jacket, hands._

_Blood. . .Who's blood?_

_It dripped from his hands into a puddle, to a tiny crimson creak leading to a body._

_Pink hair covered in dirt, matted by blood. Bruised flesh. A deep gash in the stomach stretching from side to side, leaving a pool of blood._

_Her blood._

_On his hands._

_Her life draining from her eyes in front of him, looking up at him from the wet and blackened ground._

_Dull, glossy eyes that looked at him._

_Her voice, barely a whisper and half-drowned as small red bubbles flowed in a stream from her mouth._

_"Naruto..." __He couldn't speak, couldn't move. Couldn't tell her how much she meant to him. Couldn't sooth her in her last moments._

_"Naruto. . ." __Couldn't hold her, try to keep her alive or get her to safety. __All he could do was stand. All he could do was watch._

_Her arm twitched. It raised to reach to his face, trembling from the effort. __Covered in blood, soot, and dirt, she looked at him with sadness and disbelief in her fading emerald eyes._

_"Naruto. . .Why. . . ." She coughed hard, wetting her chin with blood._

_Her breath became ragged, heavy._

_The last word died on her lips. Her arm dropped, splashing in the red puddle._

_She stopped moving._

_On his hands, warm liquid coated his hands in a red so dark he couldn't see his own skin._

_Around his feet was the thick pool. It covered the entire street._

_All of the village was covered in blood._

_He could feel it soaked in his clothes. Sticking to his face. Clinging in his hair._

_He was drenched in the blood._

_Blood he had spilled._

_Sakura's blood._

* * *

Her. Blood

Her. Blood.

Her. Blood.

HER. BLOOD.

**HER. BLOOD.**

**HER! BLOOD!  
**

Deep inside Naruto, something snapped. His eyes went dull, lifeless. His skin went slightly pale. His tight grip on his sleeves loosened.

Yet to Sasuke, Naruto was still as calm and relaxed as he was before. He stood with the exact pose, with the exact same look in his eyes. Now was as good a chance as any to finish off the moron. Sasuke's eyebrows arched in concentration, and his eyes warped and changed from the normal Sharingan into the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. His body flared with a deep purple flame that howled a wind of death all around him. He roared at Naruto with all the rage in his being, clenching his fists as his power blazed around his body.

He cracked the ground where he stood, moving so fast that he left a wake of demolished stone. His purple aura trailed behind him, bending around his body from the sheer speed at which he moved. He was no longer running on the ground, he was gliding over it. He raised his left fist, focusing power into it as he went faster and faster. The aura surrounding his arm turned darker as chakra was focused into it, becoming dense as the strength of his arm grew. The aura became so dark that it stopped being purple and became black as night with purple streaks. Sasuke's fist shot straight at Naruto's heart with a blinding speed. His arm bent the air as it rocketed to the target that would end this fight and remove the greatest obstacle in his path.

Naruto uncrossed his arms, breathed in deep, and closed his eyes as he exhaled, looking very calm. Then as if falling unconscious he leaned forward, towards the oncoming strike like a limp corpse. For a moment Sasuke was confused by the bizarre movement, and thought that Naruto had finally given up this battle and was waiting for death. But if Sasuke had ears like a jinchuuriki he would have heard a deep rumbling coming from Naruto's throat, that boiled over into a growl that no normal human being could have produced.

Suddenly Naruto's body tensed up, regaining a practiced coordination just as Sasuke came near. Naruto pulled his now healed right arm back as his left foot crunched into the ground by the tips of his toes. His arm shot forward with a burst of red chakra from his shoulder blade. The speed of his arm exceeded Sasuke's own, moving faster than even a Sharingan could detect. In an instant he summoned the same kind of black aura around his arm, but with tiny streaks of blood red running its length.

The two forces met, and a large burst of air exploded in all directions from where they met, thrashing their hair and coats and cracking the surface of the chamber walls. Naruto was pushed back, digging deep grooves into the ground under the force of the blow. Sasuke pushed him further and further with all his strength, but he found that his momentum was swiftly being canceled out. As soon as the two collided Sasuke had started slowing down, so that by the time they came to a complete stop, Naruto's feet just barely touched the broken throne.

There he stood. Nothing else had happened. The terrible force Sasuke wielded a moment before had been utterly canceled out by the equal and opposite power in Naruto's hand.

_"What the hell?"_ Sasuke thought. His arm had been wrapped in enough chakra to punch through five feet of reinforced titanium. Yet Naruto hadn't suffered the blow. The dope's arm wasn't broken or bruised. It hadn't even bent by Sasuke's attack. Naruto was completely motionless, almost frozen in place when by all rights he should've been impaled on Sasuke's arm. Instead he stood there with Sasuke's fist trapped in his iron grip.

He was still. He was quiet. His eyes were still closed and his expression was simply, eerily cold. Something was very very wrong here. Naruto felt wrong. The air around him was suddenly very heavy, like the weight of the deep sea crushing down on Sasuke's back. For him, the rest of the world seemed to fade away. The blood on the floor, the dim light from outside, the raindrops slipping through the hole, all of it blurred together when he felt the presence of his enemy.

**"Shinobi who break the rules are trash."** Naruto spoke with an icy tone unlike anything Sasuke had heard from him. But Sasuke could feel the power in his voice and the memory behind those words, the words spoken to them on their first day as Team 7. And he could see Naruto's expression starting to darken as an otherworldly shadow descended on his face. His eyes opened.

**"And shinobi who abandon their comrades are worse than trash."**

Sasuke could see that the formerly calm and stoic blue orbs had changed instantly into primal slits and crimson eyes. His whiskers had grown larger to cover most of his cheeks, and his canine teeth were huge. Pain crackled in Sasuke's hand as it was being crushed in Naruto's grip, forcing the Uchiha on his knees as Naruto pushed him down.

The aura around Naruto's hand changed from ethereal flames to something far more painful. Sasuke felt the burn, but it was less like of a fire and more of a potent acid, practically melting away at his hand. The aura stretched from Naruto's arm around the lower half of Sasuke's own, spreading the sensation that was physically eating away at Sasuke's flesh. He grimaced against the pain, struggling to keep focused. He didn't see that Naruto's own flesh was being burned just as his was. But all thoughts of ignoring pain were instantly burned into ash when Sasuke came face to face eyes that were as red and as powerful as his own. Right now he was pinned underneath the wrathful gaze of a beast that was baring its teeth right in his face. He had wanted to upset Naruto. He had.

**"But shinobi who turn who turn their back on their comrades, who turn their blades towards their comrades. . ."** Naruto's voice echoed through the chamber as an avatar of pure rage, rage that pierced into Sasuke's soul, and roared!

**"THEY ARE EVEN WORSE THAN THAT!" **Naruto's grip crunched through Sasuke's bones.

Sasuke's mind went blank. His vision flashed pure white as the many types of pain overrode everything else around him except for the booming, demonic voice in front of him.

Then Naruto released his grip, reeled his head back, and brought it crashing down on Sasuke's forehead. His metal forehead protector slammed into Sasuke with the force of a sledgehammer, emitting a loud and painful clang as it hit.  
Sasuke's entire body felt the sensation of slamming through concrete. He was sent tumbling back, digging up so much of the ground that the only thing that stopped his launch was the large mount he had dug up with his back being an impromptu plow.

It didn't stop him. It left him in pain, made him angry and disorientated from the blow, yet it did not stop him for a second. But his hand felt out of place. It felt wrong. He looked a it, and saw that it barely resembled a hand anymore. It was some unrecognizable twisted branch coated in blood. No wait. That wasn't blood, it was muscle tissue. Part of his sleeve was burned off, and he could see the muscle around the lower half of his arm and hand steaming from the volatile chakra Naruto had manifested. But this couldn't stop him. It wouldn't stop him.

With a whisper, Sasuke channeled the power of Susanoo. A small fraction of its might wrapped around his arm, coating it in human-sized armor that worked to dull the pain of the burns. He braced himself, clenching his undamaged fist to hold back against the pain he knew was coming.

For as the Susanoo formed a protective shell, it forcefully realigned the bones in Sasuke's hands.

It didn't matter how fractured or broken they were, for every one of them was snapped back into their proper alignment regardless of the pain it sent through Sasuke's body. Shards were pressed back into whole bones. They were still fragmented, but held in place by the Susanoo. Inch by inch it reshaped the bloody mass back into a functioning hand, until Sasuke's entire lower arm and hand were encased in a sinister gauntlet that looked to be forged in the depths of hell. It was simple, but the power in its frame would serve Sasuke well until he could properly treat his arm. As it was now, the pain in his limb was greatly numbed. He could fight with it, and he most certainly would.

But then he saw Naruto's feet in his field of vision.

"You've really done it now Sasuke."

"Go to hell!"

Sasuke rose in an instant to meet Naruto eye-to-eye. He drew a kunai from his sleeve into his newly repaired right arm and swung downward at Naruto's head. Naruto caught him by the wrist before it came close. Then his other hand hit the flat of the kunai, knocking the weapon from Sasuke's hand.

Naruto's face was calm, yet his movements were anything but. Just as he swatted the kunai from Sasuke's hand, his right leg came in swinging from the side, smashing into Sasuke's rib cage with an audible crack. The blow knocked Sasuke off-balance, which he then used to bring up his own right leg in for a swing to the dope's side. Naruto raised his left arm to block it and stop it dead. Then his right fist shot out and buried itself in Sasuke's stomach.

"Now you've pissed me off." The punch caused Sasuke to cough up a spatter of blood that clung to his chin. He pushed past the pain and brought hands that coursed with lightning to Naruto's body. But Naruto grabbed Sasuke by the forearms, and channeled wind chakra through his own to cancel out the lightning like it never existed.

"Would Itachi want to hear you saying this crap?" Naruto growled. "Would he want to see you burning the village he sacrificed everything to protect?" Naruto pulled Sasuke's arms down, thus leaving him open to a knee to the chin. Sasuke went head over heels from the blow, but rolled up onto his feet. He circled around Naruto and came at him from the left. Naruto spun around the fist aimed to his head. He chopped down on Sasuke's neck, and opened up with several punches on Sasuke's chest, pushing the Uchiha back with each blow.

"Your anger's made you a monster." Naruto slammed his right knee into Sasuke's side. "The Sasuke I knew would never say bullshit like that even when he was with the Akatsuki! He would never say crap like this! This rage has brought you so low that you can't even see how far you've fallen!"

"I don't care!" Sasuke bellowed. "If I am to be a monster, so be it!" His entire body crackled as lightning coated him, giving him greater speed that he used to its full extent, making it seem like he attacked Naruto with thousands of fists.

"I don't care how I am viewed when this is over! I will go to any depths, do any evil, kill anyone if it means I will kill you and see Konoha burn for what they've done!"

". . .You dumbass."

Naruto dodged and diverted every single punch thrown his way. He felt his own anger fueling his actions, giving him focus where there was none before. He had tapped into the power of Kurama, along with the rage that came from the powerful Tailed Beast. But Kurama hadn't tried influencing him. The anger that now matched Sasuke's own was all Naruto's doing. He had mastered the power of a jinchuuriki, and he was using it for all it was worth.

"You say you want to redeem Itachi's name."

Naruto shot through the sea of fists. He struck Sasuke's gut to wind him, then pulled back, and with a flare of dark red energy he slammed his elbow down on Sasuke's head. The blow sent the Uchiha's face down to the ground, but it was intercepted by Naruto's knee. Sasuke stumbled back against the strike. feeling blood from his nose start to run down to his lips.

"You say that you want to defeat me and make me your goddamned puppet."

Naruto's dashed forward. Sasuke blocked an initial punch with his arm, only to find that Naruto's other fist slammed into his stomach with the same power that he had used to catch Sasuke's punch, a fist bathed in red chakra that moved like fire, and burned just as hot when it made contact. A small cloud of red chakra burst out of Sasuke's back and dented a large part of the roof, and he hacked out more blood from the blow, feeling an unbelievable mix of blunt force trauma and the sting of fire. He fell onto Naruto's shoulder, who gripped at Sasuke's collar so that he could stare in the eye of the man who made him picture Sakura's death at his own hands.

"You say you'll burn down Konoha! You talk about killing everyone you ever knew and loved!? **About killing the only woman who loved you, with my hands!?"** Naruto's entire body flared with his crimson aura. The force of the manifestations sent out a small whirlwind in all directions, thrashing Naruto's coat. Naruto looked at Sasuke with eyes of an equal shade of red, that radiated power born of the same kind of bloodlust and overwhelming fury. His open hand clenched into a fist, radiating a deep red, almost black flame from the entire arm.

**"Well it won't happen, none of it will! You won't beat me Sasuke! Not like this!"** His fist moved upwards, carving a deep gash in the floor from the force of its nearby movement alone. It slammed into Sasuke's jaw as an uppercut so powerful that the force of the impact completely obliterated the concrete. From wall to wall the floor was shattered and sent in all directions. The affects of the blow hit their surroundings faster than the fist itself hit Sasuke.

But when they did, the result was Sasuke being launched straight up into the air. He went so fast that he went all the way up to the roof in the same second Naruto's fist hit his chin. The roof didn't slow him at all, for he went crashing through it and rocketed up into the raining sky beyond even Naruto's vision. The black-haired projectile made a gigantic hole in the roof, scattering rubble down to the chamber floor.

One very large chunk fell down in the direction of Naruto's head, but his hand slashed above him and cut through the concrete debris. The chunk shattered into hundreds of pieces that fell harmlessly around Naruto's position. There he stood. Strong, fearless, and a beast.

His attack hadn't come from concentration or carefully trained reflexes. It was only the instincts of a beast quickly and furiously removing an obstacle. Naruto did not really pay much attention to the debris even when he destroyed it. He didn't notice the chunks of roof surrounding him or the blood lying scattered on the ground at his boots. He didn't notice the tiny pieces still falling from the roof or even the cold rain wetting his now very ragged hair. His thoughts were only concerned with bitter rage. He had changed, and not for the better.

(Muse - Liquid State)

His fingernails were growing to almost three times their normal length and reinforced with his powerful chakra, making them strong enough to cut steel. He stood hunched over like an animal, and he was breathing heavily in excitement of getting his hands on Sasuke's neck. His hair had grown and was even messier than normal. The skin around his lips and eyes had turned a solid black. His canine teeth were far larger than before, his eyes were entirely red save for the black slit irises. He was growling and his thoughts were directionless. All he could think about was the image of Sakura dying at his hands. That thought overrode his reasoning entirely, so that all he wanted now, more than anything in the world was Sasuke's own blood on his hands and lips. With every second he drew more and more on the Kyuubi's power.

The skin on his arm started peeling.

Blood seeped from where the wounds were made, only to be instantly cauterized under the Kyuubi's healing abilities. But skin continued to vanish into nothing as his power grew and grew. This was not the might of his initial jinchuuriki form anymore. He was crossing over into a transformation far worse.

He was beginning to use Version 2, and it wasn't because of the fox's influence. This anger and hatred was increased by fox's power, but it was Naruto pulling the strings now.

Kurama didn't use his darker nature to influence Naruto anymore, but that didn't mean the sinister portion of his power was simply gone. Normally it was easy for him to use the fox's chakra without harmful side effects, and he only ever underwent the physical changes when he wanted to. But when Sasuke put that image in his head Naruto willingly grabbed onto the fox's power, doing it so recklessly that he was drawing on the fox's darker impulses, changing himself into what he had worked so hard to prevent himself from becoming, a monster.

**"You. Bastard. You want me to cover my hands in Sakura's blood, but I'll bathe in yours! I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU SUFFER!"** He roared like the Tailed Beast inside him, a deep bellow of rage and a lust for violence that shook the hideout with dark power.

He was diving into the pitch black waters of Kurama's power and was quickly losing control of himself. More of the skin on his arm was peeling off, and it was happening quickly. He just kept repeating the image of Sakura dying in his head over and over again. He couldn't stop it. He didn't have the control to stop it. He didn't want to stop it. He wanted to break Sasuke's bones, rip out his internal organs, and hear his pained screams before he drove Namikaze through his heart.

Before this night ended, Naruto would be standing over Sasuke's bloodied corpse!


	5. Part 5: Heaven-Shaking Event

_The silence in the house was deafening._

_Not a single word passed between the two of them._

_It was hard to believe that only a minute ago the two of them were talking about the latest music from the Land of Sound. _

_It had been such a nice and peaceful evening between the two of them before this. Naruto had been cleaning up the kitchen from dinner, washing the dishes as the music played, the soothing sounds of saxophones and pianos flowed through the room. Sakura had been sitting at the table with a cup of pomegranate tea, gently bobbing her head in time with the music while the two of them chatted._

_It had only been a minute since he had spoken, but it felt like they had been sitting in dead silence for hours. In this kind of quiet the sound of a pen dropping would've been tantamount to an exploding kunai. So when Naruto set down the last plate in the drying rack, the quiet clinking of the dishes caused him and Sakura both to flinch. Sakura almost knocked her tea over, but managed to regain her composure. Unfortunately the music was still playing, and the jazz music was hardly fitting with the subject matter._

_ "I'll get the-"_

_ "I've got it." Sakura quickly rose from her seat, appearing to do so with casual ease. But in her movements Naruto could see the tension that made her move noticeably quick. Before he had even turned around from the sink she had already pushed back her chair, stood up, zipped around to the radio, and turned off the radio. When he looked at her, she was leaning on the counter with her back to him. He couldn't her face, but he could feel how the air had changed around her._

_ "Thanks." Naruto leaned up against the sink and rested his soapy hands on the edge._

_ "Where do they think he is?" Sakura said. _

_So it was straight to business then__. No anger or tears, just information. _

_"Sai reported that they found chakra signatures matching an Uchiha at the northwestern border with the Land of the Waterfalls." he sighed, crossing his arms. "The information pretty much stops there because the ANBU squad was attacked before they could find the origin on the chakra, but the area they were in was a few miles south of the Uchiha hideout."_

_ Sakura nodded, still keeping her back to Naruto. "Wait," she paused. "only Sai reported?"_

_ "The other five didn't make it back to the village. The single agent who did was missing most of the skin on his chest. His arms and legs were cut all over the place. His left shoulder was dislocated. His face was swollen, and looked like someone tried shaving with a rusty cleaver. He's in the ICU, looked after by ANBU physicians and Tsunade. . .Mom herself."_

_ "That explains why she's been so busy lately." Sakura muttered. "What's Sai's condition?" _

_Naruto felt a chill run up his spine at her icy tone._

_But he powered through it. "Well it'll take some time to fully heal him up, though I didn't get an estimate from Kakashi-sensei. But he did say that Sai is expected to make a full recovery."_

_ "Thank Kami." Sakura's shoulders relaxed. "Anything else?"_

_ "No. Kakashi mentioned there might be an Orochimaru lab in the area and the ANBU just stumbled on an experiment. Though the coordinates of the chakra signature was too close to the old Uchiha hideout to be coincidental, I think. Orochimaru never made a clone Uchiha anyhow, so this had to have been a living Uchiha running around. The marks on the ANBU matched a blade the width of Sasuke's sword."_

_ Sakura nodded again. "Do you think it's him?" _

_ "I. . ." Naruto stopped himself. "It could be. I'm not sure." _

_"Naruto. Please. Tell me."_

_ Naruto almost didn't want to say anything. __But he had brought it up tonight, and even if he hadn't said anything Sakura would've soon found out about his mission or asked him if anything was wrong. There was nothing he could've done to keep her from finding out. She had just as much a personal stake in this matter as he did, so she had the right to know what he thought. In this matter there was no holding back._

_"Yes. I definitely think it's Sasuke. Anyone else would've killed the entire squad to keep us from finding out their location, but it fits Sasuke to leave one of our people alive if he wanted to be noticed. If he wanted to hide it'd be simple to run away, but I think he wanted to send a message. The ANBU squad was just the perfect opportunity. I think it is him, and I think he's trying to call us out with this attack."_

_ "You mean calling you out."_

_ ". . .Probably." _

_"So you'll be going after him the day after tomorrow yes?" _

_"Yeah. Leaving mid afternoon, three or four." _

_"Kill or capture?" Sakura asked._

_"I don't think capture will be an option this time." __Naruto sighed. Not once had Sakura moved. Not a single finger had moved out of place. Her feet hadn't shifted. She was still, very still. Naruto wasn't fully sure on what to say to her. Of course he couldn't blame her for reacting like this. Neither of them wanted to admit it but they had both hoped they would never hear of Sasuke again, that he would just vanish into scary nighttime stories for naughty children to hear. Yet now they had evidence that Sasuke was still around, and deliberately antagonizing Konoha, attacking their people and possibly setting up for an attack on their home._

_It was a lot to swallow in such a short time, and he was still trying to process the information he had received from Kakashi-sensei just this morning. He didn't have a damn clue of how she was taking it. _

_He hoped above all else that she didn't ask to come with him._

"_Hey," he said. "are you. . . Alright?"_

_Sakura chuckled bitterly. "Not really. We were talking about music, then you tell me that Sasuke is still around and probably wants to kill us all."_

_Naruto's gaze dropped dropped to the floor. He really shouldn't have said anything. Of course this wasn't going to end well. He knew that from the very second Kakashi-sensei had told him the grim news. He had tried burying his memories of Sasuke, tried to move past all the anger and misery that had been caused by their conflict. But a part of him still longed to have Team 7 reunited once again. Despite his best efforts Naruto still wanted his friend back._

_He could tell a part of Sakura still wanted Sasuke to come home. She was shaking now. She rose from the counter as her hands shook. He could see the tears starting to form on her cheeks again. The quivering of her lower lip while she walked around the table to him. He didn't want to think it, but he couldn't help but let his mind conjure up the face that had driven him to make an impossible promise years ago._

_"Why can't we just move on?"_

_Wait, what? _

_"Sasuke. . .Why does he have to keep hurting us?" Sakura sniffed, wiping her nose with a napkin. "Just when I think it's over and we can get on with our lives, he comes back and makes it all seem so fragile. Every time we find him he just finds new ways to hurt us both." Sakura's hand clenched into a fist. "I can't stand it. I'm so sick of having him as a constant threat and heartache."_

_"I'm sorry?" What the hell was Naruto hearing? _

_"Every time I think of Sasuke, all I can think about is how he broke our hearts Naruto. He spat in my face and tried to kill you."  
_

_"And you." Naruto growled, earning a surprised look from Sakura. "Oh. . .Sorry." _

_"No no." Sakura shook her head. "You're right. Kami I'm such a crybaby aren't I." she smirked._

_"No more so than me." Naruto responded. He tore a paper towel from the roll next to the sink and handed it to Sakura, who wiped her eyes with an appreciative smile for him._

_"Thank you. I can't help but get upset whenever he comes up. I kind of thought I'd moved on since the war, but hearing this stuff. That he attacked our people, almost killed Sai, and is now waiting for you to come get him. It's like he's only around to bring back painful memories and make us scared. Now I'm once again scared of losing something important to me. I hate this, but I'm just scared."_

_"That I have to kill him?" Again Sakura looked at him with surprise. But when before it was at a painful memory resurfacing in her mind, now it was in disbelief in what she had heard. She looked at Naruto like he was mad, torn from his senses and made into an uncomprehending animal. _

_But her gaze softened as he looked into her radiant green eyes. She stood close to him, and brought his hands together in hers. "Baka Naruto."_

_She lightly bumped his forehead with her own, resting against him while he looked at her, confused. _

_"I'm not scared of you killing him. I'm scared of him killing **you**." Sakura stepped back slightly, still holding Naruto's hands. "It's like we said back then in the snow. You're important to me, baka." Her eyes started to __tear up. "Kill Sasuke or bring him back, I don't care anymore! I'm just so scared I might lose you!" _

_Naruto didn't say anything. _

_He didn't know what to say really. _

_He hadn't expected to hear any of that. _

_When he finally worked up the nerve to speak, his voice wavered like he was about to burst into tears._

_"Sakura, where's this all coming from?" he asked. "When did you not care about what happened to Sasuke?" Sakura wiped her eyes again as she looked up at him with a sad smile. "Sakura? Are you-"_

_"Baka."_

_Naruto's words were silenced when Sakura wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. The move caught him off-guard so that he stood with her arms wrapped around him, and he didn't know what to do. He wasn't sure if Sakura was about to break out in tears or punch him for going on what might very well be his last mission. He would have moved her, asked her if there was anything he could do to ease her mind about this mission. _

_But he didn't. _

_He didn't know what to say. _

_He found his body moving on its own, raising his arms to wrap them around Sakura's waist without a thought. As he heard her strong heart beating, and felt the steady breathing on his neck, he found himself holding her very tightly. As if in response, Sakura tightened her own embrace._

_"Naruto. . .I don't want to lose you. I want you to come back home. I want to see my big baka come home safe and sound. I want you back so I can slap you for making me worry again, then hug you so tight that you'll never get away. I want to keep fighting alongside you and cooking new recipes with you. I want to keep making memories with my big baka!" Sakura wiped her eyes again as she nuzzled his shoulder._

_"Sakura. . ." Naruto and Sakura both went quiet. They rested in each others arms and listened to each other. The breathing, the heartbeat, the almost unnoticeable swaying they did as if they were still dancing to jazz. __He couldn't hold back anymore._

_He knew exactly what to say now._

_"I. . . I wish we could stay like this forever, you know?" Naruto whispered. To which Sakura nodded as they held their embrace._

_"Yeah." she said. _

_"I don't want to lose this either. I want to make new memories with you. I. . ." _

_Naruto knew exactly what he had to say. What he had been wanting say for a long time. For years he had been too afraid to say anything to her. _

_Now he was going off on the most dangerous mission in his life. If he failed he'd be killed, or worse. If he failed then Konoha would burn, and Kami knows if Sasuke would even stop there.__ Everything Naruto loved would be destroyed._

_Everyone he loved. _

_Before the battle came, he couldn't bear to not speak those words. _

_"Sakura-"_

"Naruto I-"

_Both of them went silent as blushed formed on their cheeks._

_"You first."  
_

_"No you go first baka."_

_"Why me?"_

_"Because its the gentlemenly thing to do."_

_"Can't you say it first? Doesn't something like this happen between couples when one of them goes off to war?"_

_"Shouldn't you say it because you're the one going to 'war' baka?"_

_"Why can't the person I'm leaving say it first?"_

_They both sighed, trying to suppress small giggles at how ridiculous this was. Eventually Naruto thought up a compromise._

_"Tell you what, let's say it together." he suggested._

_". . .Okay." Sakura's voice quivered as she clung tighter to Naruto. He rested his own head on hers. He smiled as he felt her silky hair on his cheeks, those beautiful pink locks that only he could touch. He breathed in deep as Sakura did the same. Then they said it. _

_Then they couldn't say anything else._

_ All they could do was hold each other._

* * *

The central chamber of the Uchiha hideout fumed with dark chakra. Power so sinister and filled with anger and hatred. Born from a single mind, the chakra was like a raging wildfire, a cruel heat that threatened to annihilate everything in its directionless path. Wisps of dark red energy floated in and above the giant chamber, swirling around in the air. They floated in many different directions, but the wisps all came from one source, that of Naruto Uzumaki, the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki.

Though the amount of chakra he was putting out hardly made him seem human. He stood in the chamber as the eye in a hurricane of crimson chakra. While the area around him was battered with dark energy, Naruto remained still, his mind honed to a razor edge and dedicated to one single purpose.

He wanted to kill Sasuke.

He wanted Sasuke to pay for putting those images in Naruto's head.

Of Kakashi-sensei being blinded. Of all his friends being hunted like dogs. Of watching Konoha burn to the ground.

Of using Naruto's hands to murder Sakura.

His entire being wanted to rip Sasuke to shreds with his bare hands just to make him suffer the fate he so clearly wished on others. He didn't just want to win the fight, he wanted Sasuke to feel pain, to subject the bastard to every conceivable form of torture known to the shinobi world before Naruto tore out his little black heart. The bastard wanted to make others suffer, but he would experience true agony by Naruto's hands.

He couldn't stop the flow of power within him. The power of Kurama was pealing and vaporizing his skin, inch by inch. This power would turn him into a monster but he just didn't care. He wanted Sasuke to scream in pain for everything he had said. He couldn't stop the flow of power, and he didn't want to! He didn't care how much collateral damage he caused or the damage this transformation would cause his body, he wouldn't stop now! He couldn't stop.

But there was someone else who could.

_"Brat!" _Kurama's voice thundered in Naruto's mind. _"Listen to me! Get a hold of yourself!"_

"Sasuke. . .Sasuke wants to make me his pet, to be his goddamn attack dog! Did you hear him!? He wants me to be his puppet and kill Sakura! I'm not going to be his weapon! I won't be anybody's weapon! EVER!" Naruto's shout shook the ground and scattered the chunks of rubble around him.

_"No, you're not. You're not anybody's weapon. We won't ever be a goddamn tool for anyone! But if you don't get control of yourself you'll end up doing something you'll regret! __So stop using __**my **__chakra and try to__ focus you useless welp!"_

Kurama reasserted his control over the chakra that Naruto had been using, seizing it from his container. Naruto's mind came crashing down from the emotional high the dark power had given him. His blazing aura burst into sparks. His fingernails retracted to their normal length, and his face and eyes returned to normal as well. The effect of it all made him fall to his knees, gasp ing for breath as the fog clouding his mind receded.

Kurama sighed._"Boy, you said that hatred made Sasuke into a monster. Don't let yourself fall to the same fate as him by letting his words get to you. "_

"I don't want to let them," Naruto panted. "but they won't leave my head. He, he made me imagine if I killed Sakura. He put an image in my brain that won't ever fade!"

_"It will fade. What you saw was just a fantasy, nothing more. You can't believe Sasuke would so easily win tonight and then go for Konoha. Have you so little faith in yourself, and that girl that you would think her, think all of your friends so simply killed by that Uchiha bastard? Get a hold of yourself, and stop fretting yourself with hypothetical outcomes of this mission like a child. You're too stubborn to give in, and too stupid to fall for something like this."_  
Kurama chuckled, a sound that would've terrified the fiercest of warriors into submission. But it calmed Naruto's breathing. The mental haze was gone and he could think again, but the image still clung to his mind. He could see Sakura's tears and smell her blood in the air. His mind felt scattered even now. But Kurama knew the one thing to get him back on track.

_"Think Naruto, what would that girl say if she saw you like this?"_

_". . .She'd."_

* * *

_The morning sun shined through the living room windows. _

_It was quiet and peaceful between the two of them, in spite of the mission Naruto would be taking tomorrow. _

_But he didn't want to think about that right now. He was content to sit on the couch with her, gently stroking her pink hair and basking in the post-shower glow. Sipping tea with the woman he. . ._

_The woman he loved. _

_It was heaven. _

_But Sakura on the other hand still had a lot of things to say about his mission. Even as she cuddled next to him and rested her head on his shoulder she was putting a whole new fear into his mind._

_"Baka. If you die on me I will use the traces of hair on your pillow, break into the kinjutsu vault, retrieve the Edo Tensei technique, then resurrect you from the Pure Land. Then once you are alive again I will use your immortal body as a club to beat Sasuke into the molten core of the planet. Then I will uppercut you so hard that you will leave the atmosphere and form a crater so big that it'll give the man in the moon a third eye. __Are you laughing? I'm dead serious you know."_

_"I know I know. I just love this. That you're so gentle one moment and threatening to resurrect me as a punching bag the next." He hugged her tight, earning a faint grunt of protest from her even though she made no move to resist. She was like a cat, looking up at him even as he swayed gently back and forth with her in his arms._

_"You do know that makes us both sound insane right?" she asked._

_"We can be insane together. The crazy Cherry Blossom J__uggernaut and the Blonde Fox Knucklehead."_

_He could see a tiny smile form on her lips. "It doesn't sound so bad when you say it like that. Promise me you won't ever stop being a knucklehead."_

_"I'll try." He smiled back at her, looking deep into her emerald eyes while she gazed into his own._

_"Don't give up Naruto. Don't ever give up even when things go wrong. If things get dire, I know you can refocus yourself and keep pushing forward with that impossibly thick skull of yours. That stubborn attitude will keep you alive, you got that? Don't. Give. Up."_

_". . .What if I think I can't do it? Sakura, what the hell should I do if I feel like I can't fight on?"_

_"I don't think you will. You might get scared and worry, be thrown off by some mind games perhaps. But you're a giant baka who's too stubborn to let that kind of stuff slow you down. Have a little faith in Naruto Uzumaki. I know I do."  
_

* * *

The storm in Naruto's mind started to calm itself, decreasing in size and intensity. The raging fire was doused and muffled as he regained his senses. The image in his mind that had driven him to feral rage, slowly faded. The scent of blood and smoke disappeared as another image took its place. The horror he had pictured was replaced by a new memory.

He remembered that night in the snow. The smell of hot chocolate, the warmth of the fireplace, and the sound of her voice saying the most wonderful three words he'd ever heard in his entire life. The smile on her face.

Every day and night with her came flooding back to him.

Suddenly, he felt a different kind of strength in him now.

He looked up from the ground with a steel in his eyes, a resolve he had somehow forgotten about in the insanity of Kurama's power and his own rage. He took a single long breath, easing his heartbeat.

"She'd say I shouldn't be such a silly baka and have some faith." With a sigh Naruto let a tiny smile form on his lips. He shakily rose to one of his knees, feeling oddly refreshed.

"Then she'd either punch me or kiss me. Maybe both."

His hand suddenly twitched, and Naruto could see that his forearm's skin was gone. His sleeve remained somehow, but its touch on the muscle tissue only stung his arm. So he rose to one knee, slightly stumbling but regaining his balance to roll up his right sleeve. It looked like his arm was steaming actually, and it felt like a terrible sunburn as he moved it.

"Ugh."  
Naruto activated a healing technique he learned from Sakura, causing his hands to glow green with chakra. He then lightly dipped into Kurama's power, which turned the glow a faded red, boosting its capabilities. Just by its proximity Naruto felt bruises on both his arms starting to heal.

He slowly moved his free hand along the arm, causing his skin to steadily regrow. It didn't feel right, but he had to bear with it if he wanted to get back into the fight

"Kurama, can you sense Sasuke's position? I guess it'd be too much to hope he had flown into space with that punch."

_"Sadly not. He's concealed himself again so I don't know where he is now. But I did feel him flying up into the clouds if that helps." _Kurama offered, committing to memory the sight of an Uchiha being uppercut into the heavens. Naruto shrugged in response as his work continued.

"It does, a little." Naruto sighed as his arm was healed to its working condition. It felt like new, if that was an accurate way to describe an arm that had regrown the skin.

"Perfect. Kurama, let's get out there and finish this."

_". . .You may want to hold off on that."_ Kurama spoke with a rarely heard tone of concern.

"Why?" Naruto asked, to which Kurama asserted a light influence over his neck, gently turning it to see the walls and the ceiling of the chamber, and the sight gave him a terrible sense of dread.

The hundreds of metal hatches adorning the walls and ceiling were now open, revealing perfectly square holes. Naruto didn't know when the hatches opened, but he was more concerned that each of the holes revealed small metal tubes. Each of which were engraved with strange black markings. Naruto's vision focused on the nearest one to his right, and then he felt a sinking feeling in his stomach.

". . .Those are markings that are normally put on sealing scrolls aren't they."

_"Yeah, they are. You won't like this, but I can feel something in those tubes."_

"Me too. I can't get a good read on it. It's like there's something masking it in here." Naruto cracked his neck and readied himself. "We need to-"

Suddenly the marks on the tubes glowed a deep red, then disappeared entirely so the tubes looked smooth and featureless. They also started whirring, giving off a faint hum as the chakra signature in them suddenly exploded in strength.

"Oh that's not good." Naruto muttered.

The tubes suddenly exploded to bits as the power within was released; black flames. Dome from the ceiling and across from the walls came balls of pitch black fire, roaring and yet deathly silent at the same time. Every single of them flew straight at Naruto, who crouched and rapidly formed a jutsu.

"Dragon's Flame Coil!" Naruto's hands lit with brilliant flames. He rotated, leaving a trail of fire that formed a large ring around him. Then he slapped his palms together, sending out a wave of flames that connected with the ring, forming an orb of protective fire that shielded him from the onslaught of black flames. The two flames fought for dominance, roaring as they danced with each other.

_"Amaterasu traps. Rather clever, wouldn't you agree?"_

"Yes it's the absolute pinnacle of devious planning!" Naruto shouted.

The black flames were already eating away at his own fire. Normal flames wouldn't ever be able to beat Amaterasu. At best this was a delaying tactic, at worst his own fire would only make his flesh somewhat crispier before it turned into ash when Amaterasu hit.

Naruto sent out another layer of the jutsu, pushing the black flames back slightly.

_"You know that won't work."_ Kurama said.

"I know! But I'm kind of short on options right now!"

_"Use my chakra, boost the jutsu so we can get out of here."_

Naruto grimaced as a portion of the black flames started overtaking his fire. "I can't! I wouldn't be able to fly out of here fast enough before the flames ate me alive!" Another patch of fire reached at his left arm, only to be pushed back by Naruto's fire dome. But it was getting smaller under the might of flames that filled the entire chamber. The flames were somehow directing themselves towards him, like they had minds of their own. There was a dome of flames on top of his own protective barrier, and it was quickly proving the stronger of the two.

"Goddamnit! I'm surrounded by eternal black flames, Sasuke might be gone by now, and Sakura's going to resurrect me just so she can kick my ass!" Naruto blew a lock of hair out of his eyes. "Oh, and now my hair's grown out again!"

_"It doesn't make you look much worse than usual. Like your father definitely, but only slightly more ugly than you usually are."_

"Not helping!" Naruto shouted.

He looked around his dome. The black flames were eating away at his fire. The more he created, the faster that Amaterasu ate. His dome was being pushed back and whittled away inch by inch. He fell back to his knee with his arms stretched out and sending out wave after wave of flame that failed to make any progress.

Naruto used all the curses he knew, and even a few in languages he didn't know. None of his normal tricks would work here. Fire was useless unless he could produce Amaterasu himself, and Kurama probably didn't know that trick.

The fox's other nature type might be useful, but it would melt faster than it was built when assaulted by these flames. Wind was his best option, but it could only temporarily push back the inferno before it overtook his blasts. He only had one chance, one technique to get out, and he and Kurama both knew it was remote.

_"That technique destroyed your house last time you tried it." _Kurama said._"Even then it barely worked. You spent thirty seconds screaming like an infant as we defied the laws of physics before you crashed into the blonde woman's flowers."_

Naruto grunted as he pushed back against the black fire. "Then it's a good thing I don't care what damage I do to this place then isn't it? You know me, I can only ever make progress in life-or-death situations." Naruto dropped to one knee, still holding out both arms to create more fire. His dome was getting smaller by the second.

"Kurama, manage the fire while I focus on the technique! I need thirty seconds at the most!"

_"On it."_ Kurama responded. He reached out to Naruto's body as a conduit for his power. His chakra rushed through his container, altering Naruto's form as tailed beast chakra was channeled. Naruto's eyes again turned red, and his whiskers widened on his cheeks. Naruto dropped his hands, and his flamethrowers moved along his arms as if they were alive until they stopped at his shoulder blades, still producing jets of flames as Naruto focused his attention elsewhere.

He rested his right fist on the ground, and breathed slowly.

"Just like the Rasengan." he muttered. "Find the point of focus, find the power."

Only instead of using his palm as the point of focus, this technique would use his entire body. His eyelids slid closed. He felt his placement on the warm ground. The unsteady and cracked stone underneath his foot and knee. The very dry blood underneath his gloved hands.

_"Feel the wind." _Naruto's fist started to radiate a tiny breeze. It was minuscule compared to the raging inferno around him, but it was there, gently pushing away bits of dust and pebbles from it.

_"Know the wind."_ The breeze swiftly grew outward, expanding from the fist to encircle Naruto's body. More dust and pebbles were displaced by his aura. It grew stronger as well, blowing harder with each second. Naruto could feel the air around him changing already, and not because of the dangerous heat. He was feeling different, almost lighter.

_"Boy, hurry up already!"_ Kurama snapped. He channeled more of his power through the flames, giving Amaterasu one more push back from his container. He couldn't use too much power, or else he'd risk burning them both, so he had to manage it carefully. But time wasn't on their side. _"We don't have much time!"_

Naruto didn't say anything in reply. He heard Kurama, but he didn't fully comprehend the danger they were in because his mind was focused only on visualizing. He pictured the wind, its ruthless power and its gentle touch. The raging hurricane and the quiet breeze. Every aspect of the wind, good and bad. All of it was his to control, to know as an extension of himself.

_"I am the wind!"_

Suddenly, what was once a quiet breeze coming from his hand was now a miniature hurricane coming from every inch of his body. His longer hair was being blown by the wind, and his coat and headband ties were thrashed about in the incredible updraft. The already demolished ground beneath his feet cracked where his fist rested. The crack grew as the gale grew fiercer, snapping from around his fist to reach his knees, then his feet, each expansion making the cracks deeper.

Naruto's fire and Amaterasu fought against each other, each with minds of their own. The black flames never found an equal in any other fire, but Kurama was born with fire in his blood. He controlled two elements as naturally as Naruto breathed, and he manipulated fire with skill that would take Naruto years to reach himself. The flamethrowers floating above Naruto's shoulders were swinging and shifting in all directions like Kurama's own tails, filling in gaps in the protective dome and pushing against the seemingly unstoppable flames. In spite of the danger, he was having fun with this fight against Amaterasu, the one fire that could give him a decent challenge.

Yet the simple fact was far more of Amaterasu's black fire than there was of Kurama's. He could easily produce an amount to push them back if he wanted, but doing so might swell his fire to the point that it would consume his container.

For once he was focused solely on the defensive, patching things up and holding out under the considerable pressure from the black fire. But his dome was getting smaller, and in a few seconds it'd collapse on them both.

_"Naruto! Do it now!"_

Naruto's body surged with violent power, making him the center of a savage storm. His body emitted shockwave in all directions that disrupted the fire. His own flames, were scattered into sparks, and the fires of Amaterasu were suddenly pushed back from the force of his power. In the same instant the shockwave hit, Naruto jumped from his crouch, obliterating the ground as he shot freely up through the chamber. His coat and headband tails trailed behind him as he shot up faster than he ever had before with Kurama's power. He shot so fast that he barely put his arms over head before he punched through the thick chamber roof. The black flames followed his path even as they were blasted aside by the shockwave of Naruto's ascent. Like a giant hand the fire tried to grasp at Naruto, only for him to exceed its reach as he flew higher and higher until he was far beyond Amaterasu and the complex.

_"OhGodI'mflying!"_ Naruto's thoughts had slurred together into one incomprehensible stream, yet somehow he had enough control to keep his flight relatively steady. For the moment he was keeping it a vertical path into the night sky, for that was all he could manage with the speed he had. Kurama would have snapped him back to his senses, but the legendary Nine Tailed Fox was faring no better. At first he had been yelling his lungs out alongside Naruto, but he had grasped words, if only barely.

_"Narutohowareyouflyingthisfast!?"_

_"Idon't know! I'veneverhad suchafasttakeoff!"_

Naruto's lower eyelid twitched as his jaw was clenched tight in a frown etched into his face. His arms were pinned to his sides, unable to move against the pressure he was subjecting his body to. In the corner of his vision he could see the white walls of the towers, which were racing past him as he continued to climb. In under three seconds he had gone from the floor chamber to at least halfway up the high towers.

At least he thought it was halfway. It was kind of hard to tell because he was traveling faster than he ever had before. It was only through sheer force of will that he was able to regain control of his blurred thoughts

_"I guess this technique is a lot stronger than your method!"_

_"Yesyeswelldone!"_

_"Oh calm down." _Naruto breathed in deep despite the rushing wind, and tried his best to calm down. As his racing heart slowed, his mind calmed and regained control of the aura around his body. The tiny storm was like an extension of his body, so natural that he felt like it had always been attached to him even though he had summoned it only once before tonight. He relaxed, raising his arms slightly. His ascent slowed from the rocketing velocity it had been before, coming to a steady stop just above the hideout towers.

"Well, that was an experiment." He knew that his wind technique was fast, that was why he was so anxious to use it and why it was risky to try without an area like this. The first time he tested the jutsu it had sent him spiraling all around the village faster than even Kakashi had been able to follow, but that was in the winding streets where he hadn't been able to test out the real speed of it. He had been too busy trying to not smash shops and crash through entire buildings. Even when he had somehow, beyond his understanding, made it into the open air, he had many too many jagged, involuntary figure eights to fly with any sort of control.

Then he had gone and crashed into Ino's flower garden, and everything after that was a black void of fear for some reason.

But now that he was out in wide open air he could actually feel the technique instead of scream in blind terror.

_"Now we just need to find that Uchiha again."_ Kurama said.

Naruto silently agreed and trained his vision on the most likely spot where Sasuke would be; straight up. Sure enough he saw Sasuke's bruised form floating in the air with his wings at the ready. He must have only just descended from the clouds.

His eyes were once again normal, but his right one was still red. Naruto realized that his blow must have ruptured a blood vessel along with launching Sasuke into the upper reaches of the troposphere.

"I would've thought you would have gone full tailed beast by now." Sasuke growled. "How? How have you not lost all control by now!? The energy of that room was battering your mind at full force and I made you picture the worst imagery I could think of. How can you not be driven to an uncontrollable rage by that!?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "I almost was."

Sasuke looked surprised.

"I almost went into a type of tailed beast state. But on top of having the fox helping me out, I remembered that all you have is anger and hate, enough hate to take pride in tearing down your old home and killing your old friends. I didn't want that hate to define me, and I also remembered what I had." Naruto smiled.

"Friends, an adoptive mother, a home, and someone who loves me and will kick my ass if I don't come home to her." His smile changed into that foxy grin. "Why do you look so surprised Sasuke? We both know that I'm too stupid and stubborn to fall for your tricks."

Sasuke's fist that had been smashed and repaired by Susanoo armor, now clenched and radiated with hellish power. He drifted down so that he floated at Naruto's level, glaring as pain crackled through his body.

"Don't give me that bullshit Naruto! I am so sick of that grin on your face! What kind of creature are you that can wield such powerful anger one moment and be grinning like a moron the next!?"

"Maybe I'm just insane." Naruto shrugged as his smile faded. "Even I'm not sure how my mind works. Sometimes I can pull off tactics that make Kakashi jealous, then other days I leave the iron on at home and burn one of my shirts. Maybe being a jinchuuriki makes me insane by my very nature of having a sentient mass of chakra broken off from a godlike monster in my body. Maybe seeing all that death and destruction in the war made something snap inside me, I don't have a clue. I don't know all of what goes on my head. But I do know this Sasuke, I'd do anything to protect my home." His eyes flashed a dull red as he smirked a devilish smirk that taunted Sasuke.

"I'll take on anyone who threatens that home."

"With that damned smile, as always."

"You do know that when animals typically bare their teeth that it means a threat right?" The grin on Naruto's face turned far more sinister, as if the Kyuubi was now talking instead of its host. "I may be smiling but I'm about ready to rip out your throat for having said something you will definitely regret."

Sasuke smirked back at him.

In a strange way he felt validated.

He could see the cold anger in Naruto's eyes as if it was a reflection of his own. Naruto was now fueled by a similar flame. Yet to Sasuke's irritation it was tempered, controlled. He wasn't succumbing to blind anger that spewed in random directions as he'd hoped, Naruto had focused it solely on him. Sasuke could fix that.

"Tell me Naruto, how much do you remember about my Mangekyou Sharingan abilities?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "You've got Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, and Susanoo. Black flames, strong genjutsu, and a purple glowy monster that you can evidently downsize into personal armor that can keep your horribly mangled arm together. Naruto glanced at the arm wrapped in indigo armor.

"I know you're shit with Tsukuyomi because you never use it, and you prefer Amaterasu anyway."

"I trust you know enough about Amaterasu's nature then?"

_"Watch yourself boy. He's up to something." _Kurama growled. Naruto heeded the fox's words and slowly drifted back, making sure he was well out of arms reach.

"Just what I've read from the books and mission reports. They're black 'flames from hell' that burn as hot as the sun itself. Once they're used they never stop burning and can be excruciatingly painful for someone hit, though they seem to burn a lot slower than normal flames. The only way to supposedly stop them is the user's will. I've seen you shape the fire into objects and command it with more skill than anything I've read." Naruto's fingers twitched in anticipation for what he felt was inevitably coming. He knew Sasuke could summon the fire almost instantly, but he didn't know what other tricks he had come up with.

Could he manipulate fire that was already-

"Oh you son of a bitch."

"Indeed." Sasuke chuckled. Naruto would've sliced off the bastards hands before he had formed any seals, but Sasuke's dexterity and speed had formed them before Naruto could do anything. Naruto felt a swell of that foul chakra deep below him. He looked down to see that the roof of the hideout was of course still burning. The holes and the giant cut were filled with the black flames of Amaterasu so that he couldn't see the room anymore. But now the flames weren't just burning the structure, they were bulging and growing, slipping through the holes to drift up into the air. Naruto only had a few seconds at the most.

He fired up his flight technique and burst away from Sasuke, making a point to hit him with turbulence from his speed.

Sasuke was knocked back but did not lose the grin on his face. He had seen Naruto's speed at dodging normal fire, so he decided it was time for a stronger type. He had called on the power of his right Mangekyou Sharingan in a new form of Blaze Release.

"Amaterasu Wild Hunt!" The writing mass of black flames suddenly burst, shattered into dozens of smaller black fireballs, unending in their hot fury and virtually unstoppable. No amount of water could extinguish the fires, they could only be canceled when Sasuke ordered it to, and right now he had no intention of ever stopping the jutsu until Naruto was a pile of ash.

The shots soared up the hideout like a horde of locusts circling fertile crops. They were undeterred by the massive downpour and moving fast as Naruto kept flying for dear life. As he circled around one of the towers he noticed a black splotch in his peripheral vision, and violently swerved midair as one shot just missed his leg.

_"What the hell? Where did that come from!?" _Seeing Amaterasu trying to kill him was nothing new, but what was surprising was that the shots weren't flying in straight lines. No, for as he circled around the tower he had previously sliced, the shots actually followed close behind and chasing him like hell-hounds with frightening speed. Each time he maneuvered away from a wall, they would turn and keep pace with him.

He would slip between the holes and cuts in the tower, and the fireballs would fly through and around the tower to follow him. A few of the fires seemed to lag behind or failed to turn fast enough, and hit the walls and debris of the tower. But their many many many brothers kept flying after Naruto, whom was fast getting very irritated at this situation. He was literally being chased by fire!

_"Is this heat seeking fire...How the hell does that work?"_

Naruto's ethereal aura surged as he boosted his flight technique, bursting ahead of the fires. Even with their considerable speed the Amaterasu flames found themselves losing ground with their target. Naruto twisted and curved around the hideout while the shots tried to keep up with him.

He dipped slightly, shooting alongside the gigantic walls of the main structure while the flames swarmed from behind. Naruto saw the whole of the valley from here on his left, and the looming wall on his right.

He could fly around the forest and get the Amaterasu to hit the trees. . .

It would make this a lot easier. . .

But he could end up completely destroying the valley before he could neutralize the fires. Kami knows how many animals were down there as well.  
No, he wouldn't willingly destroy the world around him if he could avoid it.

Plus, he had an entire building to use.

With that in mind Naruto made a sharp turn straight through the thick wall of the hideout and smashed through it with his fist. The fireballs tried to turn through the hole and many failed, splattering on the hideout wall and bathing the wall in unquenchable black fire.

Naruto meanwhile zipped from side to side in the hideout's main chamber, now far easier to see in with the roof almost completely gone at this point. He would fly mere inches above the floor, then make a diagonal shot to one of the walls before flipping around to kick off that same wall to go off in a random direction, practically bouncing around the room while the horde of fire struggled to hit him. Dozens and dozens of them only hit the walls and floor, so that thirty remained when Naruto shot back up into the open air with the flames still falling behind him.

He glanced down with a smirk. The force of his takeoff had scattered some of the broken roof in his wake, causing several more of the thirty shots to hit the rubble while Naruto flew close along the surface of the tower he had cut minutes before. Feeling like an experiment was in order, Naruto spawned a bright ball of flames in his hands, making sure to put extra chakra in it so that the jutsu was incredibly dense compared to his usual techniques.

_"Fire Style: Pheonix Flower Jutsu!" _His palms opened and let loose several small fireballs from the orb, which grew smaller and smaller with each shot. The shots swerved and turned randomly in the aid, circling around the Amaterasu flames like fireflies. Naruto expected the black fireballs to come at him undeterred, but several of them seemed to go off-course at his jutsu's passing, two even hit the tower when they seemed to shift priority to chasing his fireballs.

_"Ohhh, chakra seeking flames."_

_"Impressive, no?"_ Kurama chuckled._ "It's an art."_

_"Admire it while you can. It won't last long."_

Naruto cut the power to his flight as he flew up along the tower, sliding into a vertical skid up the towers surface and gradually slowing himself down with chakra in his feet. As he stopped he pulled out a small scroll from his belt. The remaining shots had been left in the dust for now but they were quickly catching up to him, and the fires on the roof were already spreading like mad. If he didn't put them out now there was no telling what damage they could do to the forest, or even the rest of the country. His contingency plan wouldn't cover the valley so he needed to act now. Sasuke might never stop the flames destructive path, so Naruto needed a way to extinguish or seal the fire. Luckily there was a way, and it lay in his scroll.

Naruto unfurled it with a calm haste at his feet. The deep red scroll had many small kanji on it except for the blank center, which was surrounded by arrows pointing inward. Thank Kami Sakura had him brush up on his handwriting so he could make these.

The black flames flew faster, coming ever closer to Naruto. He had only a few seconds before he was burned in eternal hellfire. He channeled bright chakra into his fingertips and slammed his palm on the blank center. The blue glow on his fingers flowed into the parchment, igniting the arrows and text in blue energy. The sealing jutsu was good to go.

He had seen Jiraiya-sensei perform this one years ago on the black flames, and if the old pervy sage could pull it off, so could he!

"Sealing Jutsu: Mass Fire Seal!" With a loud burst of power an orb of blue vaporous chakra erupted from the scroll, enveloping Naruto in a large glowing ethereal dome. Just as the flames neared their target, they slammed into the dome and were instantly stopped by the chakra, suspended midair and floating just inches from his face. He looked at the flames with relief but satisfaction in his eyes.

That was one problem taken care of. Now he just had to herd the rest of the cattle.

With a pulse of chakra pumped into the jutsu, Naruto sent out a giant shockwave from the dome that flew across the entire hideout. From the tip of the towers to the base of the hideout, the entire structure was bathed in a faint blue glow. Naruto grinned as the jutsu took its full effect, gently turning his hand as if turning a lock on the scroll, triggering the jutsu's real function. The raging black fires scattered throughout the building and cooking in the main chamber, all of them were lifted from where they had hit. Every single spark of dark flame flew from its spot, pulled by the chakra field. In seconds they all joined as one stream of fire, a burning river that was quickly flowing up to Naruto.

"Seal!" Naruto removed his hand from the scroll, and all the black flames rushed into the seal. They flowed and poured into a bottomless pit so that every single bit of fire soon placed itself within the sealing technique. When they had finished pouring in, the empty space in the scroll was filled with an elaborate kanji, 黒火.

Naruto felt rather pleased at his accomplishment. He wrapped the scroll and sealed it tight, sheathing it on his belt with a faintly proud glint in his eyes. The unstoppable black flames had just been stopped, and by a mere piece of paper no less. But he refocused his efforts on Sasuke, whom was floating in the sky a good distance away from Naruto, observing him with fury etched onto his face at seeing Amaterasu so quickly defeated.

Naruto didn't get to enjoy the rage on Sasuke's face, because the bastard disappeared with a lightning flash. One second he was there, and the other he had completely vanished, leaving behind only the aftertaste of dark chakra and bitter resentment.

"Shit." Naruto reactivated his flight jutsu, and his wind aura flared as he flew off the tower's surface into the cold and windy storm. Lightning crashed in the sky while he glided around the hideout, looking for any signs of Sasuke or a chakra signature to track. As it was, it looked like the Uchiha had vanished into thin air. But Naruto knew Sasuke was still around. The bastard wouldn't ever cut his losses and flee, especially when the two of them were fighting like this. Sasuke had too much pride and anger for that. No, he was waiting to attack.

_"He's not going to try a frontal assault." _Kurama spoke from in his head.

_"Of course not. He knows that won't work."_ Naruto checked to his left and right, floating in the open air. Both sides were clear of any Uchiha, and below him was only a crumbling roof.

_"Focus Naruto. Remember, use my senses to find him. Listen to that bastards mind."_

Naruto silently agreed, and waited. He listened for the faintest sound, the tiniest indication of Sasuke's location. His mind slowed, calming itself. The noise of the storm slowly drained out, faded as Naruto drew upon the fox's sensory abilities to reach out and feel for the madman's thoughts. The air around him was white noise, a void that possessed no emotion or thoughts. He could feel the sinister glow of whatever the hideout's central chamber was, but that definitely wasn't Sasuke. It was too scattered and directionless, and too big. He needed to feel for something much sharper, the blade of a thinking, planning mind. His senses searched and roamed the air.

Then he smirked.

"Bingo!" Naruto spun like a top in the air to swing his leg in a roundhouse kick right into the side of Kusanagi just before its lightning-coated form would have impaled his neck. Sasuke barely had time to change his strategy before Naruto's other leg slammed into his cheek. Not satisfied with a simple kick, Naruto fired a blast of wind from his feet, adding to the already considerable knockback that sent Sasuke flying back through the rain while at the same time propelling Naruto far away.

Sasuke quickly reoriented himself, using his wings to grind to a halt in the air. With one flap, he was flying right at Naruto again, circling around to narrow the gap in a way Naruto couldn't fully follow. Their blades quickly made contact with the other, clashing in a whirlwind of metal.

"I was wondering when you'd stop hiding Sasuke!" Naruto deflected a blind jab.

"I needed a break from your incessant prattling!" Namikaze just barely missed Sasuke's eyes.

They both flew at impossible speeds, matching each other blow for blow with neither gaining any ground, considering they were already above and beyond the ground. The battle was shifting back and forth, each one gaining an advantage only to be routed.

They broke off from their engagement, flying in opposite directions away from each other while shooting fire jutsus at each other. They flew around the pillars with ever increasing speeds. Naruto kept his eyes trained on the purple blur that was his former teammate, who flew with equal skill as his own. It wasn't that surprising. If Naruto had been able to get enough practice with wind, then Sasuke, a prodigy of their generation, would be able to master flight as well. He had skill, so it was time to see if he had durability.

Naruto sheathed his blade and made a sharp turn to end the smooth arc around the tower. Suddenly he was flying straight up into the air while he gathered an old favorite jutsu in his hand. It had taken some serious effort, but now he could use this technique not only without any shadow clones, but with only one hand.

Sasuke's Sharingan followed Naruto's flight path, and recognized the technique forming at an alarmingly fast pace. He was preparing "that" jutsu. Without a second to lose Sasuke shot straight into the air, flying behind one of the towers to hide from Naruto's line of sight. His arm shot up and his hand opened to call on the sky. With the weather like this he could call on his own special technique without any trouble.  
His chakra reached out into the clouds to gather the raging storm above. Entire mile-long bolts of lightning were suddenly drawn to a single point, warping and fusing into a technique the Uchiha hideout had used once before.

Naruto rose just above the tower while Sasuke did the same on the opposite one. Sasuke was almost knocked out of the air however when the mere presence of Naruto's jutsu hit him like a freight train. In Naruto's hand was a spinning mass of chakra so intense that it was like a blinding light to his chakra-detecting vision. He dispelled his Sharingan, and saw that the jutsu he thought would be annihilated was far stronger than he had could see Sasuke wince at the sight of his jutsu, and smirked.

"You sure you don't want to just surrender?" Naruto held in his hand a screeching jutsu, the one and only Rasenshiruken. Even now its power upset the earth and sky around them, blowing in all directions like a small hurricane confined to Naruto's hand.

Sasuke's mind seemed to pause.

Then he started to laugh. A low cackle that swiftly ascended into a bellow at Naruto's words. He looked upon the blonde fool that continued to view himself as superior to himself.

"Naruto, you idiot! Your power is formidable, but what I have up my sleeve makes that attack pathetic! This is power born from my anger for every sleight Konoha made against me and my clan! You will not survive this, and I will laugh as you die an ashy corpse!"

Naruto rubbed his temples with a groan. "I am so sick of your speeches. You sound like a whining academy student when you're like this. You're like a bullied child who's now big enough to do the same to others as if it'll make things better."

"You dare to-"

"Why yes I do dare Sasuke! I dare to call you a brat who's abusing the massive power you have gained for your own short-sighted grudge, to kill anyone you **think** has offended you. Did seeing Madara running around trying to control the world not teach you anything? Everything that happened to the Uchiha's for decades, the entire reason they were even distrusted is because of that guy's plans! He orchestrated the events that ultimately lead to their death, and he's stone cold dead now!"

"So you say it was only his fault that my father and mother were killed by their own son? No, Konoha helped to wipe out my clan! The Third Hokage and the council were involved in the slaughter, their orchestrations led to the death of my family!"

"Danzo was the one who convinced Itachi to go through with the massacre, and then stabbed him in the back for doing his own dirty work. The Third was vehemently opposed to the plan and it only went through because he couldn't find any way to prevent a coup. He was killed by Orochimaru, your snake of a mentor! The other two council members were being pulled along by Danzo's scheming! It was all Danzo and Madara! Yet you're shifting the blame to other people you can actually take out your anger on! This isn't like you Sasuke! You're being blinded by that hatred you can't let go of!"

"Shut up!" Sasuke unleashed a giant shockwave of dark purple chakra. Naruto could see the rage in the Sharingan, blind and directionless.

"Did you expect me to stop with Danzo!? That I would kill him and return home as your friend!? No! I will topple the village who brought my clan into the position that brought them to their deaths! I will not stop until you are all repentant for your crimes against the Uchiha, and it starts with the one who did the most to slow down my pursuit of justice! I suffered for years, and you all will as well!"

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he rubbed his forehead, sighing. For a few seconds Sasuke thought he didn't have anything to say. But then Naruto looked at him, annoyed.

"Could you say that again Sasuke?"

". . .What."

"Sorry, it's just I keep fighting people who are so glum and brooding. I hear so many of these speeches to gain 'justice' or make others realize how crappy the world really is that I think I've automatically started tuning them out." Naruto coughed. "Scuse me. So anyway could you repeat what you were saying?"

"AAAAAAH!" Saskue howled, raising his hand to the sky. "Witness the power of true lightning!"

With that gesture, the lightning in the clouds suddenly struck all at once. Hundreds upon hundreds of them gathered into one mass of energy. Naruto saw the bolts fusing into some kind of ball in the sky. It almost looked like a poorly made Rasengan in its structure, only much much bigger. It shifted and stretched like it was alive. Somehow it sprouted red orbs that Naruto could see as eyes. Soon teeth, a mouth, and the head of a kirin were looking down on him in all the fury of an entire storm.

"This jutsu is Kirin!" Sasuke clenched his fist, and the lightning-construct roared its deafening roar. The sound of lightning and the rage of a beast that echoed across the entire valley, and made Naruto avert his eyes from the wind.

"This jutsu," Sasuke said. "it will end this fight." Naruto looked back at Sasuke to see the eyes of a killer glaring at him. "This jutsu will kill you Naruto, and finally destroy that annoying mouth of yours. Now die with the thunderclap!"

Suddenly the jutsu high above twisted in impossible angles, deforming and reforming as it flew straight up into the clouds, trailing a wake of lightning as it rose. It twisted in the air to face straight down. Sasuke dropped his hand. With that motion the Kirin fell. It shot straight at the hideout, and Naruto in particular.

_"Shit."_ Naruto pumped more chakra into the Rasenshuriken, swelling it to three times its size.

It's screeching increased with its size, and he had to hold it over his head just so it would accidentally slice him in half before even used it. He didn't waste a single second, throwing it into the sky, its screech none the quieter for its distance.

Sakura looked up at the comparatively tiny shuriken raced up to his lightning construct.

"You really think you can stop real lightning with that attack?" he taunted.

"Maybe, maybe not." Naruto mused. "The explosion may not even reach us."

"But my blade certainly will." Sasuke said.

Now it was Naruto's turn to let out a laugh, catching Sasuke off guard.

"Ahh. If I were you I'd be more concerned with looking down. That and the element of surprise."

"What the hell are you-"

Sasuke could sense his own chakra far below him, moving up at him with incredible speed. He looked down the surface of the tower just as the swarm of black flames of Amaterasu started to home in on him, somehow boosted beyond their normal speed by something fueling them. Sasuke realized it must have been wind chakra, judging from the blue coating on the black flames.

With a single flap of his wings, Sakura rocketed away from the towers and the black flames. It only equated to a few seconds, but those were all he needed to activate his Mangekyou Sharingan. He dispelled the sea of flames back into nothing but black sparks that disappeared into the ether. Naruto must have planted that damn scroll somewhere to use Amaterasu against him!

"Surprise!"

Sasuke's back was wrenched through the air by his collar and right arm. Naruto had zipped past him and reappeared, using the flames as a distraction. Naruto's strength knocked him off balance, pulling Sasuke into a spin. Naruto was a top and Sasuke was along for the rapidly quickening ride. Naruto spun faster and faster, using wind chakra to move faster than he ever had before.

"Let me go you idiot!" Sasuke roared, but Naruto only snarled in response.

Naruto gave a final burst of speed to accelerate his spin, and released Sasuke straight down to the hideout roof, flying down the length of the towers. But the very instant Naruto had let go, Sasuke's legs managed to spring up right at Naruto's chest to send him soaring high into the night air. They both flew with disorienting speeds in opposite directions. Like missiles Sasuke plummeted to the hideout while Naruto flew up into the sky.

Naruto screeched to a halt. With a snarl he saw how he had ended up disturbingly close to where the Rasenshuriken and Kirin would make contact, high above the hideout that looked minuscule from this height. Kirin was still descending from the cloud lines, while his own jutsu was just beginning to make its way into those same black clouds. The jutsus were going to hit any second.

Sasuke almost hit the roof of the building before he channeled a greater portion of Susanoo. He briefly increased the size of his wings to ten times their size so that they nearly covered the roof the hideout beneath a purple shield. With a single flap of those wings he stopped a few feet above the crumbling roof. Neither Sasuke nor Naruto had been injured, but both were plenty angry.

Naruto's entire body flared with a new surge of power that burst around his body as a gold aura. His entire body tensed up, and he dived straight after Sasuke, leaving a vapor cone behind him as he broke the sound barrier.

Sasuke's purple Susanoo wings flared with new strength in their human form, glowing brighter than normal. He reoriented himself and with a single flap of his wings, he shot up at Naruto. The force of his redirection shattered the ground beneath him, and he flew with ever increasing speed.

The two tore through the air and rain with their maddening speeds so that in mere seconds they had both reached the top of the towers. They each pulled back a fist while the Rasenshuriken and Kirin neared each other. The fists of the two combatants glowed with terrible power of gold and indigo, both using vast oceans of power within themselves.

"Naruto!"

"Sasuke!"

In that instant the valley was covered in a technicolor flash.

Hundreds of shades of blues, reds, and purples bathed the land in a display of color that was wonderful to behold, yet terrifying with the destruction it had unleashed in a deafening explosion.

It could have been the massive jutsus colliding with each other with the force of several tailed beast bombs. It could also have been the two fists wielding power unlike any seen in the shinobi world. But the end result was the same; a massive explosion of chakra that shook the entire valley. The earth itself was upset, the hideout's walls cracked and fractured from the uncontrollable shaking, and trees snapped like brittle twigs from the wall of air slamming into them all.

As for the air above the hideout, it was filled with smoke and sparks from the collision of powers. The mass of smoke was so large that if the wind and rain weren't already dispersing it, it could've been mistaken for another giant storm cloud. That cloud of smoke also created its own rain, but a rain consisting of two human-shaped projectiles that left streams of smoke as they fell.

One of them was only just regaining consciousness, and he had no idea where in the hell he was. His vision was completely blurred. He could only hear the howling of the air.

He felt like he was drifting through water. Did he crash into a pool again?

He could breath, so he wasn't underwater.

What was he doing again?

Had Sakura accidentally knocked him out of the bedroom again?

Actually, where was Sakura anyway?

Where was he?

Why in the hell could he sense Sasuke?

"Damn you. . ."

Naruto's senses immediately trained themselves on the voice several feet away from him. His eyes regained focus and saw that Sasuke, like him, was falling past the towers of the Uchiha hideout. Both of them were smoking by the ends of their coats and leaving black trails as they fell. Naruto's cheek felt sore, likely from the clash, and he could tell by Sasuke's grimace that he had suffered a similar blow. But Sasuke was far more focused on the dope in front of him.

"I hate you Naruto." he coughed out.

"I know." Naruto responded. "I gathered that."

"That annoying tongue of yours, it repulses me. You repulse me, and I will reduce you to ash even if I have to die to do it."

". . .That's all you've got, isn't it. Hate. That's all that's driving you anymore Sasuke." Naruto sighed and crossed his arms even as he fell upside down.

"That's all I need." Sasuke's wings materialized again, and his body glowed deep purple.

"You're wrong Sasuke." Naruto's body flashed with red flames. "You're so wrong and you don't even know it."

"Try to explain it," Sasuke stopped his descent. "before I rip out your throat."

Naruto slammed to a halt in the air just as Sasuke did. "If you do, then you'll be snuffing out the only chance you have at hearing the truth."

"And that would be. . ."

"The truth of how I'm going to win."

They flew away from each other, drawing their blades before swinging back around to engage. Blade clashed against blade. Fists, feet, and palms deflected blows and missed to hit only rain water. The impressive light show continued as the two jousted and bounced off each other.  
Naruto had raw speed and a greater acceleration on his side, and used it to zip around the strikes from Kusanagi. Sasuke lacked Naruto's quickness, but he made up for it in sheer maneuverability. His wings gave him options to use, slipping from spot to spot before Namikaze could strike at him.

Now, with his considerable skill and experience using wings, Sasuke was pushing Naruto on the defensive with an onslaught of sword-strikes that Naruto had to burst away from just for a reprieve from the fury. But Sasuke's wings allowed him to quickly arc around Naruto's flight path and end up within arms length. Then he spun like an airborne drill, rotating to spread his wings to their full length as he did. A wing slammed right into Naruto's entire body, knocking him on a path to the forest below. His unconscious form plummeted from the force of the blow.

_"Damn! He's better with flight than I thought!" _Naruto flew straight down, passing close to the wall of the hideout. He shook his head of the disorientation the blow had given him even as he shot down. He continued to fall past the cliff face with such speed that it scattered the dirt, mud, and rocks in his wake. The ground rapidly came closer.

_"Naruto, you better have a plan..."_ Kurama spoke nervously.

Above them, Sasuke plunged with sword pointed down to finally end the life of Naruto Uzumaki, his greatest obstacle &amp; rival. Naruto rocketed straight down with no intentions of redirecting his course...Yet.

_"Naruto? Pull up!"_ Kurama said. Still Naruto flew down past the rock face with blinding speed, followed closely by Sasuke's winged form that screamed through the air and rain. The ground got closer. Wordlessly, Naruto gathered another type of chakra into his fists, another "blessing" of the fox's.

_"Pull up you idiot!" _Kurama screamed.

"Just die already Naruto!" Sasuke screamed.

With mere seconds before he hit the ground, Naruto's entire body surged with wind, and a golden flame of blinding intensity. He swung his legs over him, reorienting himself to look back up at Sasuke with an angry and determined snarl. Just before he made impact, a tremendous burst of wind exploded from underneath his feet, redirecting all his momentum straight up. He held out both arms in front of him, clenching his hands into tight fists. Sasuke could see that dense chakra as being focused into the gloves, but for the first time in years he didn't recognize the chakra type.

"Ice Style: Yeti's Knuckles!" Small brass knuckles grew around his hands, each radiating with chakra so intensely bright that seeing it up close caught Sasuke completely off guard. He had never seen something like this, not even in the Land of Snow. It was completely out of the ordinary, and it was rather odd to see Naruto using ice jutsu. . . Wait. . .

Naruto was using Ice Jutsu!?

"Oh you cannot be-"

Sasuke's words were cut off when he felt the mass of two mountains slam into his stomach. In one pained moment Sasuke's vision, that he was so proud of turned white with pain, and he could swear he felt several things break. Boosted by his tremendous speed, Naruto's fists absolutely knocked the wind out of Sasuke, along with some coughed up blood that fell to the now quickly retreating ground as Naruto flew back up along the cliff side. With a shout he lifted up his knee to hit Sasuke's stomach.

The impact redirected Sasuke's flight path, a faint course correction that sent the Uchiha rocketing up through the hard rocks and boulders of the cliff-side. They all shattered as he collided and became a human battering ram against the wall of the hideout, tearing it a tall makeshift door in his painful and cataclysmic wake.

Quickly rising above the wall just above his enemy, Naruto reshaped his ice knuckles into one giant fist on his right hand, a massive bludgeon that would smash through solid steel like styrofoam. His sledgehammer-like fist finished off the unscheduled demolition with an uppercut to Sasuke's jaw just as he neared, resounding with a sickening **crack**.

The blow from the ice battering ram punched Sasuke through the sound barrier and sent him rocketing up past the towers.

With considerable effort Sasuke managed to slow himself to a panting, gasping stop. He rested his palm on his side, feeling a single broken rib, and his jaw felt out of place now. He called on the might of Susanoo again, wrapping his ribcage in a thin sheet of chakra armor.

Sasuke braced himself as Susanoo formed around lower jaw, snapping it back into place and remaining as a sinister mouth piece similar to ones he had seen the samurai wear. He was actually impressed with that punch. Even with his immense durability, Naruto's blow had managed to injure him. Looking down he saw the sizable distance between him and the hideout created by just one punch, and it occurred to Sasuke just how much power he'd have to use if he was going to win this fight. He would have to go all out and use the full might of his eyes to crush Naruto like a gnat. The idiot's unbelievable skill and power, along with his quiet resolve that spat in the face of everything Sasuke was fighting for just filled him with rage.

As if on cue Naruto suddenly appeared before him, floating in the air with his wind aura still flaring around him as a distortion in the air. The shinobi looked at Sasuke with a quiet and neutral gaze as a single mighty bolt of lightning crackled in the sky, his now gold &amp; orange eyes looking back at Sasuke's black &amp; red ones with silent fury. For a time they both floated there in the wind and rain as the storm tore apart the land around them.

"One bloody eye, a demonic gauntlet, now a damn face mask. You're starting to look like more of a monster than me Sasuke."

"I've had enough." Sasuke said, his words coated in contempt for Naruto.

With a faint grunt, his purple aura exploded out around his body, and the flames rapidly grew until they dwarfed the entire hideout. They were crackling with power and bathing the entire structure in a faint purple light from above. The fire raged in the sky like the wrath of a god. Because that's what Sasuke was now in the eyes of the world, a physical god.

His fire warped and shaped itself in the air, and with several loud creaks it began forming a true monster. First came massive ribs, bursting into existence high behind Sasuke, followed by shoulders and neck. The skull came next, with glowing yellow eyes and contorted horns. Then the arms snapped into being along with the legs, forming the entire beasts skeleton. Both humanoid and alien in its appearance, the technique was the bane of the shinobi world.  
Then muscles, nerves, and skin made of pure chakra wrapped themselves around the bones of the creature, giving it a more human appearance that breathed a terrible aura of merciless spite. Cloth and armor soon followed to form a skin-tight suit that was covered in billowing robes.  
The simple skull changed to that of a demonic samurai helmet with the elongated nose of a tengu. The bare arms and legs were wrapped in thick armor from ages past, and the rest of the body soon followed, forming a terrible suit of armor. On its back were two massive ethereal wings that rested next to the arms, and on its hip was formed a single gigantic katana that could reshape the land with a single swing. A monster not seen since the final battle of the Fourth Shinobi War, this giant was known for its horrific legacy and association with Madara Uchiha. The face of death was this creature, the Complete Susanoo.

The giant sprouted its own wings, softly floating in the air yet destabilizing nature with its very presence. The clouds seem to grow darker where it stood, and the storm only grew fiercer. Multiple lightning strikes blasted through the sky every few seconds, reacting to Sasuke's nature affinity that resonated in the Susanoo.

But he wasn't done. Not by a long shot. Sasuke raised his open palm to the sky as he closed his eyes and silently called the titan, commanded it to join with its one and only master.

"Final Susanoo."

A technique Madara could theorize but never execute himself, Sasuke had managed to perfect it in his solitude. His entire body pulsed with energy that Naruto could practically taste, a foul and rotten aura that spoke of one thing: death. Then, the Susanoo began to shrink. It scaled down until it stood behind Sasuke, matching his height. But despite its lesser size, the Susanoo glowed with power ten times greater than in its giant form. Sasuke's horrific black &amp; red eyes opened as the Susanoo, the ultimate Uchiha weapon, merged with him.

The purple creature shifted into a wisp-like form that wrapped around Sasuke's body, clinging to him like a second skin and reforming the armor for the Uchiha. His Kusanagi also fused with the Susanoo's own sword into one demonic weapon, Wailing Dark. Sasuke drew this unstoppable sword, which glowed with a color so dark that it seemed to Naruto's eyes like an emptiness, a tear in space that was being used by Sasuke, who readied his stance, letting out a mad grin aimed at Naruto. With the Susanoo focused to a razor edge, compressed into such a small size, no one in the world could withstand Sasuke's power.

Except for one knucklehead shinobi, and said shinobi was happy to meet the challenge head on.

Naruto looked at Sasuke's new power, seeing and feeling the strength before him. Despite having to kill him, he felt a begrudging respect for how far Sasuke had pushed himself, gaining power that surpassed even a fully strengthened Madara. But then again, Sasuke wasn't the one who killed Madara.

"About time we both went all out."

Naruto's eyes changed as he drew upon both the power of Kurama and the power of nature, the Sage Mode. His iris turned into a combination of a thin slit and a frog-like eye the transformation was known for. As he was now, Naruto could call upon the nature chakra with mere seconds of prep time.

Then he and Kurama opened the floodgates, fully linking together in a stable bond that could last indefinitely. Naruto's whisker marks changed into black bars, and his body was enveloped by a flaming gold chakra shroud. His black &amp; orange coat shined like the sun, flapping in the intense wind generated by his surge of power. He gained the distinct magatama marks on his collar while his shirt and pants turned blacker than night, highlighted by the the black markings the mode came with.

A gigantic mass of golden chakra appeared behind him in the shape of Kurama, shining with the same brilliant flame as the jinchuuriki. It was just as big as the Final Susanoo and it carried the same terrible power in its body

The complete apparition opened its mouth, showing the razor sharp teeth made of living chakra. Like the thunder in the sky, a low growl rumbled in it's throat as the harbinger of Sasuke's destruction, the sound of a beast ready to rip its opponents to shreds. Its piercing red eyes looked at Sasuke with pure contempt for him and the bloodline that had sought to control the fox. Even with his immense power, Sasuke was beginning to feel small.

Then Kurama let loose an assault on the senses of every living being for miles, disorienting them with a fierce and terrifying wall of sound. The creature roared with the strength of the now strongest tailed beast in the world. It overshadowed the thunder, and echoed for hundreds of miles.

People across the Fire Country could hear it, and quite a few in the other nations heard the faint noise. But most of all, the people of Konoha heard it and knew that it was the Fox's roar. Once they felt uncontrollable terror when the fox sounded. No more. What once signaled an unstoppable wave of death now symbolized hope and a willingness to fight on in their eyes, the Will of Fire embodied by a Tailed Beast, of all things. The creature before Sasuke had yet to find an equal in combat, and its jinchuuriki was now virtually unstoppable. But he wasn't done. He had yet to activate the final form of his union with Kurama.

"Tailed Sage Mode."

With a newly found love of theatrics Naruto snapped his fingers, and the monster began to shrink, packing every square inch of its power into Naruto's body. As with Susanoo, with every second its light shined brighter, clashing against the unholy light of Sasuke's Final Susanoo. It grew smaller and smaller while Naruto's form glowed brighter, lighting up the stormy night sky, a beacon of hope and power. It was with a rush of adrenaline that Naruto found himself wrapped within the full power of the fox and the vast might of nature itself, the Tailed Sage Mode. Power strong enough to end this battle.

"Time to end this."

Naruto ejected his sword from his sleeve right into his open palm, twirling it lazily as he gave a smirk and extended his power to the sword. Namikaze now radiated a heavenly gold light that was far brighter than the yellow flames around Naruto's body, a sword that stood in perfect contrast to Sasuke's own dark weapon.

Both of their swords crackled as they channeled their strongest techniques for a killing blow. Kusanagi flared with black flames and pure lightning coursing through its blade, an unquenchable firestorm with the precision of lightning. Namikaze swirled a multicolored aura born of fire, wind, and ice. Three types of elemental chakra working in concert, resonating into one power and shaped to form a Rasengan-like coating around the blade by the chakra shroud.

Yin &amp; Yang.

Dark &amp; Light.

Now, over the ruins of the Uchiha hideout stood the embodiments of evil &amp; good. Two sides of the same coin, opposite yet linked to each other. But only one could walk away from this.

The two physical gods readied their weapons as the world around them seemed to stand still. Just for a moment, there was a tense calm in the air, a brief pause in the chaos. Then, all hell broke loose. Naruto and Sasuke flew at each other with impossible speed, each pouring power that could reshape continents into their swords. Kusanagi roared with black flames and blue lightning. Namikaze's golden aura flared like the sun.

"Lightning God's Black Flame!" Sasuke screamed.

"Primordial Hurricane Blade!" Naruto roared.

They swung their blades at each other, power coursing through their swords and bodies, and in that moment when the two collided. . . It all went quiet. For a brief moment, everything was calm. The ground was motionless, and the clouds remained where they were, continuing to rain on the world. A single tiny bright light shined above the Uchiha Hideout.

And as the land turned silent, night became day.

In a blinding flash the earth shook, and the sky around the Uchiha Hideout lit up. With the burst of a massive explosion, the hideout was no more. Gone, annihilated in seconds. Its stone foundations that had stood for so many years were vaporized. The initial wave of heat turned the rock red hot, literally glowing a brilliant crimson before the explosion disintegrated it all into nothing. Any creatures or people that saw the cataclysm unfold found their eyes and ears overwhelmed. The light blinded them, the sound deafened them. The horrifically brilliant sight defied nature.

No, obliterated nature.

Some of the clouds were vaporized by the heat in an instant despite their great distance. The explosion sent an earth-shattering shock-wave. The trees were wrenched out of the ground by a wall of air that shattered boulders, before being set alight midair and disintegrating in seconds, reduced to ash. The massive forests surround the hideout were wiped clean, made barren by the terrible clash in the sky. The chakra-infused fire and wind wiped the ground smooth in a cleansing blast of pure, uncaring destructive force.

All life for miles was extinguished in the wake of a clash that could be felt across the entire shinobi world. The people of the Five Great Nations could sense a massive pulse of chakra that shook even the mighty Kages to the bone. All of them were greatly unsettled by the sheer volume of this random burst.

In the village of Konoha, Kakashi, Yamato, &amp; Sai watched from a rooftop with held breath, each looking on in quiet bewilderment. The Fifth Hokage, Tsunade sat in her office looking in the direction of the storm with a concerned glare, as one of the few who knew exactly what was happening. Well, that and one other person.

High above the village, on the Hokage monument was Sakura Haruno. She still wore her thick coat, unconsciously fingering the soft fabric that kept her warm even in this terrible storm. She could feel Naruto fighting Sasuke, and the explosion had nearly knocked her off the monument. She was grateful she had made it back to the village when the storm had hit, but she still wished she had run after Naruto. She felt another chill run up her spine as the rainwater splashed on her face.

"Baka Naruto, don't die on me."

* * *

At the Uchiha Hideout, the rain continued to fall.

A large drop fell onto a stray branch sticking out of the ground. With barely noticeable impact, the water landed on the one remaining leaf of the tiny sprig, trickling slowly down its fold. But the leaf was already dead. Black and desiccated, it snapped off the branch under the force of a single rain drop.

The fragile thing floated back and forth down through the wet &amp; misty air, landing on the ground silently, before it crumbled into dust, joining its brothers as a blanket of wet ash on the valley.

The Uchiha Hideout and forest were gone.

No sign that they ever existed remained.

The animals were gone as well, and the trees were just ash upon the tightly packed and dense ground. The black surface was smooth and lifeless for miles in all directions as a barren valley, devoid of all sound except for the soft pitter-patter of rain. A burnt lifeless vale left tranquil by a clash of gods.

But the tranquility was shattered when the sound of metal clashing against metal resounded through the air. Sparks flew, only to be extinguished by the rain. Two swords continued to sing their melodies as they danced with each other.

Two swordsmen carried on their feud, each determined to strike the killing blow. Both were battered, bruised, and cut, but had no intention of letting up for even a second, lest they be the one who was cut down. Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha fought to win, to reach their goal, to defeat the other. Even with the wasteland that was their battlefield silently weeping at the destruction they had wrought, the two refused to stop their fight. Only one of them could walk away from this.

They fought with wild ferocity, all composure and warriors focus was long gone from their eyes. Now there was nothing but the battle, only the next move to plan, the next strike to counter. With chakra almost entirely spent, neither one would stop fighting.

It was only when both of them could barely swing their swords, when they could hardly breathe from all the exertion did they stop to grant themselves a brief respite from the whirlwind and apocalyptic clash. They had been fighting so intensely neither had stopped to notice fatigue weighing down on them like the fortress they had destroyed. So they wordlessly agreed to a temporary truce.

Naruto dropped to one knee while Sasuke rested on his sword as a makeshift cane, both were too exhausted to even glare at each other. Crimson drops fell from their bodies, sinking into the black muddy ground. Their fiery auras were gone, dispelled.

Now they stood as they began, in the rain with only ruins at their feet. But now the ruins were ash, mere dust in the wake of their apocalyptic battle.

As he regained his breath, Naruto's eyes looked up and saw the death around him. A black, burnt wasteland was all that remained of the vibrant forest. The utter destruction, the eery silence of this whole place that had once been so full of life filled him with regret. Regret that he couldn't end this before a forest was reduced to a desolate valley. As with Madara and Hashirama, the battle between two powerful being left naught but destruction, only this time there wasn't anything eye-catching like a waterfall to commemorate it. Just a barren wasteland of death that he felt responsible for. Naruto shifted his gaze from the wasteland back to Sasuke. The reason why he was here.

Sasuke was still wearing an expression of undying hate and loathing. Such eyes held enough anger and rage to snuff out all life in Konoha. The friendships Naruto had forged, the lives he had saved, the home he had come to love so much, none of it would survive. All that could remain of the village was a burnt landscape, the ash of every building and home. Every man woman and child reduced to a black, dead valley. Every single one...

With a sigh Naruto rose to a stand, battered but far from out. He stood strong and ready. He readied his sword, steadily pumping wind into the blade while Sasuke prepared his own lightning-enhanced weapon. One final slash would secure victory. Swordplay and speed would determine the outcome tonight.

But before the fight could end, they both stopped.

Before the final strike could be made they stopped and looked at each other. Red eyes looked at bright blue ones that stared back. Something resonated between the two, something neither one ever expected to feel.

They still carried the anger towards each other in their eyes, but there was something else in the two shinobis gaze. A faint reminder of what they once were.

Friendship was long gone, but a grudging respect remained. They respected the power and skill of the other despite their opposing goals. In an odd way, they owed each other a good death, a fair kill, even if they hated each other will their entire beings. Sasuke chuckled as he realized the irony of owing something to the person he loathed. But he had to admit, killing Naruto with any other technique than the one he was thinking of just wouldn't be satisfying.

"It just wouldn't feel right if this whole thing ended any other way."

He slid Kusanagi into its sheath at his side, then removed the sword from beneath his black cloak before embedding it into the ground.

"Gotta admit, I've always wanted to see which jutsu would win you know?" Naruto responded.

He twirled Namikaze in his hand. With one faint but piercing note the sword was stabbed into the flat soil beside him.

"Now lets finish this Sasuke."

Sasuke merely stared back at Naruto with neutral gaze.

"Lets, Naruto."

Naruto raised his right hand at his side and stood tall, while Sasuke dropped to a crouch and gripped his right wrist in his left palm. In the Uchiha's hand was created a single spark, a faint flicker. Then another joined it in a brighter sparkle. Then another crackled into life, increasing the light. Then three more spark quickly joined, creating a loud and visible bolt of electricity that snapped with terrific energy. More and more sparks crackled into existence to join in the jutsu. The lightning swelled, grew into an deep blue aura around Sasuke's hand. The jutsu crackled and sent off small bolts that arched through the air surrounding its user. With one final pump of chakra, the technique roared with power, with the sound of birds chirping that signaled its might.

A technique taught to him by Kakashi with the stated goal of protecting bonds, it had been warped into a ruthless blade to sever bonds. Like him it was focused to a single point and capable of slicing through all obstacles to reach his goal. Sasuke's signature jutsu.

"Chidori."

The air around Naruto's gloved hand warped. Wispy currents of chakra swirled all over his palm. Like tiny currents they flowed, zipping through the air. The currents slowly became more focused, rotating into an orb-shaped construct. The energy in the orb grew and grew until it was a shining, spinning mass of chakra that shrilled with deafening intensity. The jutsu's "shell" then formed, hardening its shape and producing an almost metallic grinding, airy screech.

The thousands of tiny chakra threads while strong individually, when mixed together formed one solid mass of unstoppable power. A technique learned by the Fourth Hokage from seeing the Tailed Beasts power, passed to only a few students and a pervy sage, now formed in Naruto's one hand with skill that surpassed his father's.

"Rasengan."

There they stood with jutsus in hand. One chirping with focused electricity, one spinning as a sphere of pure destructive energy. One wielded by the last of a clan that had terrorized the world for countless years, the other held in the hand of the nine-tails jinchuuriki. Each one was leaving their marks on shinobi history and being remembered for all of time. But only one of them could live. Only one would leave this now barren wasteland alive, and each were determined to do so and reach their goals; Sasuke's destruction of the village that had wronged his clan, and Naruto's protection of his family, for that's what Konoha was to him. A family.

He had been born into a hard life, full of scorn and distrust and fair share of blind hate. He made a few friends in childhood, but he was always alone at the end of the day, with only his dark thoughts and misery for company. But he changed all that, changed peoples view of him as nothing but the container of Kurama. With his determination to become Hokage he had transformed from a kid whom stories were told of to scare kids into the hero of Konoha, savior of the shinobi world. Now he had to do so one more time.

"Are you ready?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto looked up from the ground, back at Sasuke's red eyes. With equal parts sadness and relief he readied his stance, and the Rasengan whirred with loud power.

"Yeah. . . On three then." Naruto responded.

"One." Sasuke focused his mind for the kill. This would be his victory, his finest moment.

"Two." Naruto's eyes narrowed, preparing himself. He was ready to do this, for his family.

"Three."


	6. Part 6: The Promise of a Lifetime

_Why?_

_Why do I feel so awful right now?_

_I shouldn't feel like this, not now._

_This is something I've wanted._

_I've wanted this moment for as long as I can remember._

_Almost for as long as I wanted to become Hokage._

_Just me and him._

_Fighting. _

_No distractions, no interruptions, no greater threat to keep us from each other's throats._

_Just the two of us fighting all-out._

_We joked and insulted. We belittled and berated. We laugh at the other's reason for fighting. It didn't matter what that reason was. Revenge was just him being petty. Family was just an excuse to fight with a clear conscious. Even that bullshit "justice" was just an incentive to dive at each other's throats._

_As if something like justice could exist in a world of backstabbing, broken families, and bitter betrayal like this._

_But in the end all that reasoning and bullshit came together to justify a battle. A real battle to see who was stronger. We wanted to see who's resolve was stronger, who's methods of training were more beneficial. It was a contest that after years still had no clear wictor._

_For years we had wanted this to happen. Through all the pain and danger from Zabuza, to Orochimaru, to the Akatsuki, to Madara. Deep down we both wanted to see which one of us was the stronger fighter._

_There was that fight we had in the Valley of the End. But that hadn't been a real battle to the death. Both of us had been held back by inexperience and our own emotions. Even when we clashed that final time neither one of us had gone for the killing blow._

_Years apart made us stronger, more efficient shinobi. Rasengans and Chidoris could be summoned on a dime with minimal effect on our chakra. We could move faster and hit harder than the Kages with power that hadn't ever been seen in the world before. Then we had fought a Madara with the power of the First Hokage, the Rinnegan, and the Ten Tailed Beast on his side._

_And won._

_But both of us became more distant from how we used to view each other. We weren't brothers by any means. Nor were we anything close to teammates anymore. We were. . ._

_Enemies._

_I was the obstacle. I was the one thing that could stop him from joining Orochimaru and destroying Konoha, the blonde dope who grinned and fought to protect everything that Sasuke hated._

_He was the man I once saw as I a brother._

_Or rival, or a distant cousin I only hung out with out of some kind of obligation._

_But whatever in the hell I thought he was, he was important to me. I had wanted to save him from his quest of revenge. I didn't want him to end up a monster like Orochimaru, if he didn't end up possessed by that snake bastard. He meant something to me, to Team 7._

_Now he was something else._

_Human. Monster. I can't pin it down. __He's not my friend or teammate. He's c__ertainly not a brother. _

_Kami I don't think I'll ever understand how brothers work. __Not sure if I want to understand._

_I don't even know what's going on in that sick mind of his. Hell it could be that chamber has been twisting him up inside until he was nothing more than a genocidal maniac._

_He's a fractured mind. _

_He's a raving beast without any real direction. He's a dangerous lunatic willing to attack everything and anything for the tinniest reason, and he has to be put down before he destroys my home, and Kami knows who else. _

_There's no way around it. I have to kill him. __I have to kill him. __I don't have a choice in the matter. __It's the only sane thing to do. __If I don't he'll slaughter everyone._

_I. Have. To. Kill. Him._

_So why do I feel like I can't?_

* * *

"One." Naruto's knees bent.

"Two." Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"Three."

In the middle of a smoking wasteland two shinobi charged. They were bruised and bloodied, but their exhaustion and wounds did not slow them in the slightest. They both ran with all the strength they could muster, pushing through their fatigue and wounds for the killing blow.  
They scattered ash-laden mud from the force of their running, forming shallow trenches in the ground. Using a slight amount of chakra in their feet, the two absolutely tore the ground as their speed was enhanced. Their jutsus left faint glowing trails in the air. Swirls of chakra flowed and twisted off of the Rasengan. Here and now, this fight would end. Their arms were brought forward, and they roared like tailed beasts to be heard across the world.

"Chidori!"

"Rasengan!"

In the middle of a dead and quiet wasteland paved from the wrath of their feud, they smashed into each other as two unstoppable forces.

Chidori and Rasengan met once again after such a long time. Lightning smashed against pure solidified chakra. The force of it scattered the ash and dust at their feet in one perfect circle around the combatants. The lightning from the Chidori arched and zapped around Sasuke with unpredictable twists and turns, and Naruto's Rasengan sent its wave-like swirls in all directions, twisting through the air like rogue currents while the two techniques crashed into each other.

Both jutsus carried the strength to utterly destroy an enemy and reduce them to a bloody mess. But in each other they found something that stood as an rival power and ability. Neither the Chidori or the Rasengan had proven the victor against the other in their previous two clashes, but now the two shinobi would know which was truly superior. There was no Kakashi to stop them, no ulterior motives in their attacks and no Madara to make them cooperate.

Sasuke wasn't going for a simple punch, and Naruto definitely wasn't going to try scratching a forehead protector.

Tonight was the night they would go for the kill.

Neither was gaining any ground, yet neither of them faltered in the slightest. The techniques and their users continued to push against the other with no sign of stopping. The energy sparks and arches grew in intensity, the force of the wind generated by the deadlock grew in strength and blew in all directions with slowly increasing force as they pushed. With each second the chakra from their clash grew bigger and bigger, shocking and upturning the ground in all directions.

Naruto grimaced as Sasuke's mad grin remained affixed to him, and the bastard actually cackled as his jutsu crackled the air.

"This will only end with your death Naruto! Konoha will be mine!"

"You're a bigger moron than me if you think I'll let you get near my home!" Naruto spat back.

"Is that so? Because the last time I checked, you were the fool trying to 'save' me!"

Sasuke laughed in his face with a mad smile, insulting the efforts of not just Naruto, but of Shikamaru, Rock Lee, Sakura, and so many others who had tried to bring him home!

"Because I thought you were my friend in those days! I would've tried everything to bring you back. I **did** try everything, to make you see what you'd be losing when you went to Orochimaru! But you tossed that all away and turned your back on the only family you-"

"What the hell do you know of family!?" Sasuke shouted with all the rage he could muster. "You never knew your parents, never grew up in a loving home that was ripped apart by the schemes of a broken system, never spent entire nights crying at losing everything! You don't know what I lost, so don't you dare insult me like that! You know nothing of my pain! I'm fighting back against this system that wounded me, that wounded you! Can't you see how the village dealt us both a broken hand!? It killed me clan, and left you a street rat! You have almost as much of a reason to hate Konoha as me! How can you see all that they've done to us, what kind of monsters they've turned us into and still fight for them!?"

The Chidori burst with increased intensity, chirping louder than ever before and tearing up the ground with stray bolts and streams of vengeful electricity. They lashed out like his words, born of real anger, and hatred from his years of misery.

"My family is dead and buried Naruto, I watched my parents die right in front of me and then killed my own brother who smiled right in my face even as he drew his last breath. You, you're an orphan. The closest thing you had to a father figure was the Third Hokage, and he didn't exactly do a good job looking after you. So don't you dare try to lecture me on family! You know nothing of family!"

It was at that moment that Naruto changed again.

"Sasuke. . ." His eyebrows arched. His mouth curled in a frown, baring his gigantic canine teeth. His coat and longer hair started thrashing in the sheer power radiating from his body.

Sasuke had thought that his words would've caught Naruto off guard, but his speech only served to piss off Naruto. But it was at that moment he snapped. Suddenly his eyes had turned a deep blood red.

"You're a fucking idiot!" Now it was Sasuke who was caught off guard. "You think I don't understand that pain you feel!? I know that overwhelming anger and hatred so well it sickens me! You're right, I never did grow up with 'real' parents or siblings. I never had an older brother to inspire me to train or parents to give me a home! I was just a street-rat living off what little good will the village could be bothered to spare me, all based on lies and hidden truths to protect themselves! My heritage was hidden from me and from the village! I was the demon brat! I had nobody to look after me, nobody to protect me from the hatred of ungrateful parents too stupid to appreciate my parents sacrifice and the lies they fed their children! I was born alone!"

Naruto's eyes spoke of anger. Endless, undying anger at his suffering. He showed a wrath and hate he had long since buried, a burning desire to lash out at all those who had wronged him. For a second Sasuke thought he was looking in a mirror.

"I hated the way they treated me, a little boy born without anything to his name! Everytime they threw rocks at me I switched back and forth between crying and wanting to rip their goddamn throats out! What right did they have to hate me!? You talk like you're the only one who's ever had hatred for Konoha, but there were days when I wanted nothing more than to tear the village apart brick by brick! I wanted to burn it all and leave them with nothing but ashes!"

Naruto winced at his own words despite the real anger in his voice. That hatred he had felt as a child was a mistake, a past moment of weakness he had only ever said to Sakura in private. But now it was laid bare for Sasuke's ears.

"I had no family or home, nothing but the hatred of the village and a goddamn demon in my stomach!" Naruto's eyes briefly flashed red from his own anger drawing the fox's power. He kept staring right at Sasuke, peering deep into the dark recesses of his friends soul while baring his own dark burden, one born in misery and ignorance of all the love his parents had for him before they died, and knowing only the hatred of the village people.

"I thought nobody understood how I felt. But. . ." Naruto's furious expression turned proud.

"I found a family! Iruka-sensei! Pervy Sage! Konohamaru! Kakashi-sensei's like my dad! I've even got an adoptive mom in Tsunade! Our friends are like siblings to me! Team 7 was my first real family! All those missions and times spend with you and Sakura, the good and the bad. We laughed together, cried together, fought and bled together! I learned what a family was, what they meant to me! They were the people I would do anything in the world to protect, do anything to make them happy!" The Rasengan started to flare with new intensity as Naruto's power roared like the storm.

"You talk about family like its something I won't ever understand! But you're wrong! Dead wrong! Because I never had a family of my own I've learned how much the bonds I have truly matter! The people you're trying to kill, those villagers and our friends, **THEY ARE MY FAMILY!"**

**Cue: **  
**(Futatsu No Mirai Instrumental)**  
**(OR Sorario Days - Gurren Lagann)**  
**(OR Heaven Shaking Event - Shippuden OST)**

At that exact moment the Rasengan started gaining ground. Sasuke was briefly alarmed by the sight of Naruto's technique pushing him back, and tried to return that favor only to see Naruto's furious eyes in his way. Like two spotlights shining in his face, the intensity of Naruto's glare was blinding. Strong, fearless, and unrelenting.

Naruto felt the fatigue from the battle leaving him as his shoulders felt lighter. His deep crimson glare faded back into his brilliant blue eyes.

"They've all endured so much suffering, and there's been so much death and destruction, so many who died from the constant threats to the village. Yet they pulled through, proven they could and would fight back against the bastards who wanted them dead!"

Naruto was screaming his lungs out right at Sasuke. The Rasengan kept spinning and burning with power, pushing against the Chidori with intense thrust. The single point of the lightning jutsu was being slowly whittled away under the chainsaw-like force of the spiraling chakra sphere.

"But they're still scared of what the next day will bring! My family is too scared to go outside at night because they're afraid of what **you** could do!" The thousands of threads were beginning to take small, minuscule nips at the one focused chakra point. Like Naruto's bonds, each one of the threads helped him fight back against those who sought to sever those bonds, to snuff out the lives of his friends, his family.

"I won't let them live in fear anymore!" Naruto took a single small step forward Another small push forward, another inch gained by the Rasengan. With quiet rage, Sasuke tried to push back, increasing the strength of his jutsu

"Then you can enjoy eternal peace with them in death Naruto!" he screamed.

The clash of wills was tearing the ground to shreds around them. Bolts of electricity arced randomly and whispy chakra swirls flew all over them. Sasuke channeled all his remaining chakra into the Chidori, determined to win this bout and finally remove the greatest obstacle in his life. His jutsu exploded with the boost into a miniature storm of lightning.

But it didn't slow down Naruto for even a second. The Rasengan increased in power too, matching the Chidori and in fact exceeding its strength! Its previous power was nothing when compared to the maelstrom that was pushing back with a vengeance, a ferocity matched only by the inferno burning in Naruto's eyes.

"I'm not dying today Sasuke!" Naruto took another, longer step, and the Rasengan kept pushing. Naruto felt that familiar spark, that nigh unstoppable resolve as he poured every once of power into surviving, into winning to protect everything that mattered to him, into keeping his word to the woman he loved so much he would defy death itself to make her smile.

**"BECAUSE I!"** His entire body lit with shining blue flames, and the Rasengan doubled in size.

"**MADE!" **Naruto's eyes glistened with power. Not from the sage mode or Kurama's influence. No, this was Naruto all by himself for the things that mattered most to him, fighting for his friends, for his family, for the bright future of tomorrow. For every person he loved.

**(pause song)**

* * *

_Naruto still held Sakura in his arms. Her eyes continued to release heavy tears down her cheek as she gazed into the eyes of the man she loved. She could barely keep her sobs quiet, and she leaned into his chest for comfort, to hold him close before she might lose him. Naruto took her into his arms, quietly giving her some comfort, and receiving it in turn._

_Naruto ran his fingers through Sakura's hair while she leaned against him. He always liked it when he felt her hair. Sakura enjoyed it too, letting him comb it every night. One of his happiest memories was of how many times they lay together, with him stroking Sakura's beautiful pink curls while listening to the sound of her strong heartbeat. He hoped he'd come back to make more memories. Live a long happy life with the girl softly crying in his arms, repeating her desperate request._

_"Don't die Naruto. Come back to me. Please, don't die." She would have continued if Naruto hadn't kissed her on that lovely forehead of hers, causing her to raise her red-eyed stare to meet his own red-tinted deep blue orbs that always looked deep into her soul. With gentle strength, Naruto lifted her chin to gaze into her eyes. But not for the last time._

_No, not the last time._

_He gave a small, loving smile._

_"I won't."_

* * *

**(resume song)**

**"A PROMISE!"**

The Rasengan flared with a blue fiery aura that flew in all directions around the two shinobi, sending wisps and gusts of ethereal fire-like chakra. The sudden and brilliant light of it hurt Sasuke's eyes, and he had to alert his vision from the sight with a pained grunt. The Chidori was barely visible now, and he couldn't even hear the signature chirping of birds over the Rasengan's now deafening scream, matched only by Naruto's own wild roar. The rage of a beast yet the focused fury of a shinobi.

The Rasengan's spinning form quickly started to overtake the Chidori, and Sasuke found his feet digging against the mud while Naruto kept pushing and pushing with an indomitable will that would override any jutsu, any technique. In the jinchuuriki's eyes that shown like the Rasengan, a light that mirrored the flames in his hand, the unstoppable drive to protect the village against all enemies and all opposition; The Will of Fire.

With force strong enough to punch through a mountain, the Rasengan finally bested its long term rival, overtaking and snuffing out the Chidori like a puff of smoke in its nigh-unstoppable path. The Chidori's single point of focus, while strong, couldn't endure the thousands of threads in the Rasengan. The jutsus fiery aura warped in the wake of its speed, flowing back as one giant cone that continued to rotate furiously around Naruto, bathing his body in a glaring sky blue light that glistened across the wasteland.

**"AND I'M GOING TO KEEP IT!"**

The jutsu scraped by Sasuke's now defenseless hand. He felt and saw thousands of tiny chakra threads slice through his flesh in an instant. In that single second he felt more cuts and slashes than he had ever experienced in his life, all inflicted on his hand. As the jutsu brushed by, Sasuke's hand suddenly lost all feeling.

Because there was no hand anymore.

It was vaporized into a small cloud of blood that itself quickly dissipated within the raging tempest of the Rasengan. Just a minor brush with the Rasengan had destroyed the hand completely. It had happened so fast that Sasuke barely had time to register the pain.  
Because of course the hand wasn't Naruto's real target to begin with.

Naruto redirected the Rasengan's path for a killing blow aimed at a spot Sasuke wouldn't be able to heal from; his black heart.

The jutsu roared as it raced right towards Sasuke's chest, to finally bring an end to the war, to ensure that the horrors would all end. Right here. Right now. The jutsu slammed right into his chest, filling Sasuke's body with a burning pain unlike any he'd felt before. He screamed in agony and rage as it drilled into his flesh. The Rasengan's chakra flames spewed wildly in all directions, swirling and flowing as the jutsu barreled forward.

**(end song)**

_". . . Can I do it?"_

But then something changed.

_". . . Damnit."_

Just it looked like the attack would vaporize Sasuke, Naruto's expression of unbridled rage changed. Ever so slightly, his intense and focused anger faded away. It was barely noticeable in the storm of chakra, but his eyes softened, and then he gripped the Rasengan. It would hurt like hell, but he had to try.

_"__Goddamnit it all to hell."_

Naruto's hand, that had been just centimeters beyond the Rasengan, now gripped on the jutsu.

_"Goddamn you Sasuke!"_

Naruto squeezed the Rasengan like a stress jutsu's structure started to bend and warp in his grip. Its hard shell went into flux, distorting from its spherical structure until the shell began to dissolve and flow into more of the fiery aura around Naruto's body. Without the outer layer to maintain its attack, the spinning threads that had given the jutsu its lethal power were quickly losing their harmony, spiraling and bouncing off each other with the sound of rusty metal scraping against each other.

The horrible screech made Naruto's skin crawl. The countless chainsaw-like blades in the jutsu scraped against his skin even through the nigh-indestructible gloves. But he wasn't going to stop. He kept squeezing on the Rasengan, pushing through the increasing pain. With a final effort Naruto crushed the chakra shell in his hand, and the Rasengan's remaining energy burst as the shell shattered like glass.

In a explosion of pure hardened chakra, the thousands of threads flew out and shot in all directions: up to the heavy clouds, deep into the scorched earth, around the raindrops, and into Sasuke himself, piercing his body like tiny hot needles.

The fiery aura that surrounded Naruto whooshed around them both as one great wave of sapphire energy that left a blue wispy light on the ground. The large puddles of water surrounding the scene were all blasted away by the impact, and the dead soil was upturned in a perfect circle around the two shinobi.

The dirt glowed with a faint light. The glow gradually dissipated as the chakra was slowly extinguished, and the jutsu fell silent in the pouring rain.

There in the quiet storm stood Naruto with arm still extended at his enemies chest. The only traces of the Rasengan were the steam-like streams of chakra floating off of his hand, and the quiet hiss of burnt flesh.

Sasuke meanwhile stood rigid.

He stared at Naruto's face, almost hoping to see the moron look sad at having finally accomplished a goal he had never wanted, to see him feel the bittersweet victory of killing someone he once loved.

But Naruto's eyes did not meet Sasuke's. They were concealed beneath his overgrown hair. The only part of Naruto's face that he could see was the expressionless mouth. He showed no joy or remorse in his victory.

So that was it.

The moron wouldn't look him in the eye even when he was killing him.

Sasuke's burnt, broken, and bruised body slowly stumbled back. His coordination was completely gone. His limbs felt numb yet peppered with the sensation of hot blades stuck in his flesh.

He took one unsteady step back, followed by another that dragged through the mud. He lost his balance, then fell upon the wet and blood-flecked mud with a heavy splash.

He had moved with impossible speed and strength minutes before. Now the only motion from him was the unsteady rise and fall of his chest, and the occasional twitches from his limbs.

It was over now.

Naruto knew it, and took no joy in it.

Sasuke knew it as well, but could scarcely believe it.. But even if he couldn't believe it, the truth was burned into his chest.

He had. . . Lost.

Yet he was far from dead. He felt a lot of pain, in every inch of his body it was either a pained ache or burning sensation. But the pain was nowhere near enough to cloud his thoughts, and his mind struggled to comprehend what had just happened.

It had taken him a second to fully register the attack, he couldn't move his arms or legs. But whether it was the effects of the Rasengan, his fatigue from an intense battle, or just the mental shock of seeing his Chidori defeated by the blonde moron's jutsu, he couldn't tell. But he knew he was at least still alive.

He was fully conscious for sure. He could still feel his heart beating. The Rasengan's point of impact felt strangely warm, but there wasn't that familiar wetness of blood. It was like an intense sunburn surrounding his chest, punctuated by the burning needles left by the chakra threads. Naruto's jutsu should have drilled straight through his body, but it hadn't. Naruto had stopped it, canceled it out in the middle of the attack by expelling its power in all directions at point blank range. It was a devastating maneuver, but apparently not enough to kill him.

There were many questions going through Sasuke's mind. Was he in a nightmare? Was this all his rage and anger could do against his enemies? Was he forever fated to endure this rage for his clan?

But the greatest one that clung to his mind was comparatively simple.

"How?"

Naruto remained standing in front of Sasuke as the rain fell, turning slightly so that Sasuke couldn't see the arm that had used the Rasengan, for some reason. His anger and rage looked to be gone, or at least suppressed for the moment. He didn't seem mad in the least, merely distracted by his thoughts, with his gaze at once looking at Sasuke yet staring something else and lost in his mind. He didn't even fully hear Sasuke's question.

"How did you become so powerful Naruto?" Sasuke repeated with a pained breath.

Naruto was brought back to reality with a tired sigh. He looked weary, but it wasn't from the battle, it was with Sasuke's question.

"You still don't get it, do you." he muttered.

Naruto's neck felt stiff during the fight, so he rotated his head as he looked away from his former friend with half-focused eyes, still feeling some unknown distraction in his head. He wasn't distraught but there was some type of regret in him, something that held sway over and ultimately stopped his killing blow.

Sasuke inwardly dreaded seeing that look of pity in Naruto's eyes, and as the knucklehead slowly turned back to look at his friend, his eyes showed a sad sympathy and regretful compassion for the former member of Team 7.

"After this whole fight you still don't understand. I don't think you've ever understood. All this time since the war you never once thought of where my power comes from."

"Cut the speeches. How did you get so strong!? You've used abilities rivaling my own that you never displayed before, that you never would've gotten by yourself!" Sasuke coughed with an angry gaze and spat out a wad of blood to the side, turning his neck with a pained grunt.

"My abilities were gained by honing my skills to their utmost, to reach the pinnacle of strength in the shinobi world. Yet you have countered every single one with abilities you could never achieve on your own," Sasuke's eyes flickered back and forth between his normal ones and the Sharingan as his stores of chakra were running dry. "how the hell could you have become so powerful as to kill Madara and defeat the Ten Tails!? Not even I could do it!" Sasuke shouted, though his voice was noticeably hoarse. He coughed again, causing blood to trail from his mouth.

Naruto looked at his best friend, who now lay on the ground in the most pitiable state. The sight of Sasuke coughing up blood and choking words through a hoarse voice made him feel heavy again, like he was wearing a jacket made entirely out of lead. The feeling weighed down on his right shoulder and arm most of all. It wasn't a feeling that he felt at all comfortable with.

His right arm hurt like nothing he had ever felt before. It felt like it'd been skinned, roasted, and covered in salt all at once. He tried moving his fingers, and was rewarded with a spike of pain through his arm. Naruto glanced at the sleeve, see that the lower portion was completely gone, probably vaporized by the Rasengan. He groaned at the thought of how much it'd cost to repair it.

That, and the fact that the lower half of his arm had its skin burned off and had the appearance of burnt meat.

He couldn't heal it this time, at least not with his or Kurama's power. The Rasengan had wrecked his arm so thoroughly that it had damaged most, if not all, of the chakra points there. His hand was mostly intact thankfully, due to the special gloves he wore. It felt sunburned  
But everything from his wrist to his elbow was genuinely nauseating. Healing it without proper treatment would be dangerous, so the best he could do was grip the remaining portion of his sleeve and tear it off from the shoulder.

Though putting it on would be tricky when standing up. . .

Naruto shook his head. He couldn't believe what he was about to do. He reached into his back pocket to remove a small hip flask, shiny and surprisingly undamaged from the battle. Its silver-colored shape was expertly engraved with the leaf symbol of Konoha. It was small gift from Kakashi on Naruto's birthday, amongst other useful items.

With a smile Naruto unscrewed the cap and took a huge swig of the flasks contents, and finished feeling refreshed. Now he just needed to apply it to his arm.

He wiped his mouth of the drink, and in a move Sasuke never saw coming he strolled leisurely to Sasuke's crumpled side. Then Naruto crouched down next to him and held out the flask with an dully inquisitive look in his eyes.

"Want some?" he asked. No emotion could be heard in his voice.

"No. Now answer my question."

"If it helps, its just water. I'm not really one for saké."

Sasuke was not convinced. "How do I know you're not just poisoning me?"

"I did just drink it myself, dumb ass." Naruto groaned.

"You could have built an immunity to it."

"That doesn't mean I would be chugging it down for nourishment." Naruto's eyebrow rose.

"You're an Uzumaki, it's a known fact that you're born hard to kill. You would survive it, hell you would like it knowing how impossibly resilient you are!"

"Now you're just being paranoid."

"Its kept me alive! Why should I accept a drink from you of all people?"

"Oh for fu-." Naruto growled. His furious glare slammed into Sasuke's. "Because I'm the only person left alive who's stupid enough to actually show you kindness!"

Sasuke went quiet.

Naruto looked at him with a now icy gaze, looking not particularly pleased with the situation either. With great reluctance, Sasuke turned his head, signaling Naruto to lower the flask to his lips. He did, tilting it to slowly pour the icy contents. True to his word the liquid inside was in fact surprisingly ice cold water.

"There you go, keep chugging."

When Sasuke had his fill, Naruto removed the flask from his lips.

"You see? You're still breathing. . . I guess." Naruto wiped the bottle with his intact sleeve, pointedly avoiding the glare Sasuke sent his way.

Now that that was out of the way, it was time to get to the fun part.

"One moment." Naruto held out his overdone arm, which he just noticed was actually smoking. Oh joy.

This would certainly be fun to heal back home. Kami knows he might need to have the damn thing amputated and replaced if he wanted to still be a shinobi.

He channeled a minor heating jutsu into his left hand to warm the flask. Given that it was made from chakra metal, the water inside was quickly heated to a toasty temperature, perfect for disinfection.

Naruto sucked in his breath and slowly poured the water. It flowed from the flask and slipped along his arm. It hurt enough as it was, but his arm's faint hissing sound from contacting the water made it genuinely gross. Even Sasuke winced at the sight, though he hid it so that Naruto failed to notice.

When he was satisfied, Naruto ceased pouring and pumped a burst of icy chakra into the flask, lowering it to its more delicious temperature while he took the piece of cloth that was his sleeve and tied it gently around his arm.

Sasuke found the sight rather odd, especially that Naruto had heated water so quickly. But what was really interesting was that the flask had yet to run out of water, possessing a seemingly unending supply. Sasuke expected the remains of a dribble to fall on Naruto's arm, but the amount in the flask had no end. As if anticipating a question, Naruto looked at Sasuke with a knowing chuckle as he capped the flask.

"It's a space alteration jutsu my dad invented back in his day. He used it mainly as storage for his kunai. Kakashi-sensei learned it to keep track of all his stuff, then he taught it to me after the war. It basically makes things bigger on the inside." Naruto smiled as memories came flooding back to him. "Pretty useful for when Sakura goes shopping too." he giggled. The burdens of clothes and groceries were a thing of the past, though Sasuke found it considerably less amusing.

"So the great Fourth left you with a useless trick that you used to store water and carry shoes..." he grumbled. Naruto looked surprised at his words, at Sasuke insulting his father. Sasuke had expected and actually hoped for an over-the-top outcry from Naruto, to see the moron grow defensive and childish at hearing Sasuke's unimpressed words and dismissive attitude. A moment of weakness he could use.

But his jibe was instead met by a faint sigh. Naruto looked at him with genuine sympathy and a twinge of sadness in his eyes. To him, Sasuke looked like a rabid animal who still refused aid even when its own careless anger had seriously wounded it. Something that was indeed a danger to others, but by now was brought to a pitiable state by wild directionless hatred of the world. Naruto almost felt sorry for him, if they hadn't been trying to kill each other all night.

"Nothing is useless Sasuke." he said. "The stuff you call 'useless' helped me to change from a little street-rat with a demon in his stomach into the guy I am now."

"The hell are you talking about?" Sasuke questioned.

Setting the flask down, Naruto adjusted his seat to cross his legs. As the rain fell gently around them, Naruto didn't seem to feel the least bit unsafe sitting next to the man who had tried killing him minutes before. In fact he seemed to be relaxed, resting like it was another day of training while he sipped from his flask.

"I'm saying that the very things you consider useless are what are stopping you from destroying the village. The knowledge and powers I gained from useless things are what let me beat you tonight."

"You dare," Sasuke tried lifting his arms, feeling reinvigorated by Naruto's arrogant words. "I'm not done yet, I-" Sasuke hacked up another wad of blood for his efforts, this time at Naruto's feet, before slumping back to the ground. He looked at his arms in sheer bewilderment.

"Well it looks to me like you are done Sasuke. Several of your chakra points are gone. Destroyed completely. That's why you can't use your arms or legs much right now. I don't know how long it lasts until someone like you would heal, but for now I'd say that it's more than enough to keep you down." Naruto explained using a tone that seemed barely concerned with Sasuke's actual well-being. Sasuke snickered.

"The effects of those chakra threads from the Rasengan. Damnit."

"More or less. I actually refined their structure with advice from Hinata. Turns out the inner layer of the Rasengan doesn't function too different to how the Hyuugas focus chakra into a single point to form their defensive techniques, so she helped me refine it and make it more effective." Naruto's mirth quickly faded as he looked over the wounds his jutsu had inflicted.

The missing hand, the numerous burnt red points, and the red swirld pattern over Sasuke's heart all came from his technique. He didn't think it would've done that much damage.

"Exploding it at point blank range wasn't my intention. Normally it shouldn't really affect chakra points because they're almost impossible to hit without a Byakugan, but I guess that hundreds of thousands of chakra threads could eventually hit them. I would apologize for the clumsy cancellation, but then again without that you'd still be trying to kill me."

Naruto shifted himself a few inches closer to Sasuke's side and still didn't seem the least bit intimidated by him. Sasuke had to try something, anything to get Naruto to slip up. Even if it was just for a second, he might be able to use that to his advantage, or at the very least take Naruto with him before he died.

"So you draw upon the strength of others because you are weak to begin with."  
Naruto went quiet, utterly still. Sasuke suddenly felt hopeful. Perhaps he'd found that switch, a trigger to get him unstable.

"Well, you're not exactly wrong."

"What?" Sasuke continued to be left confused by this moron who was proving less moronic every minute. It was downright unsettling that he hadn't said 'believe it' yet.

"I told you that I was born without much of anything, and you know for a fact that I was a bad student."

"Dead last as I recall." Sasuke confirmed with a smirk. But if Naruto was bothered by the remark, he didn't show it. Or he just didn't care about his reputation in the Academy anymore.

"Yup. I didn't have much beside an entire ocean of chakra that I couldn't use effectively. So eventually I branched out. I looked around for things that could help me."

"Like what?" Sasuke questioned, looking at Naruto like he was the scum of the earth, a maggot to be crushed. So far everything out of this fools mouth only filled him with mounting anger. "Useless advice from a one-eyed fool, the pathetic blubbering ramblings of a pink-haired bi-"

Naruto glare slammed into Sasuke's eyes, and the Uchiha felt that familiar sinking feeling in his stomach. With a flat mouth and narrowed eyes, Naruto's looked at him with quiet rage, an icy focus that was practically begging for an excuse to pounce on his enemy and rip him to shreds. Naruto had the gaze of a beast that could flatten mountains, but one that possessed a mind dangerous enough to know the many painful and precise methods of killing, and had bested Madara in single combat. There was a strong yet simple message in Naruto's eyes.

"Finish your sentence and I will kill you right here, right now."

Without a second thought or a hint of remorse Naruto would simply end him like any other enemy on the battlefield, just another check mark on a mission report. Sasuke was amazed that Naruto hadn't mauled him by now.

So Sasuke went quiet, refusing in his mind to admit defeat but definitely showing a bruised ego. Naruto seemed to settle a bit himself, breathing deep to calm down. Revenge wasn't the reason he was here, and to kill Sasuke in cold blood wouldn't make him any better. No, he was carrying a faint, possibly futile hope of teaching someone who refused to be taught.

_"This should be fun."_ Naruto groaned to himself, and leaned in a bit closer.

"Here, listen. You want to know how I beat your Sharingan?"

Again Sasuke remained silent, simply looking away from Naruto and focusing his attention on the clouds, which was somewhat difficult considering the rain plashing onto his face. But his sheer loathing of Naruto kept his head looking right at the gray, heavy sky, shielding himself with his resolve of making the world pay even in this sorry state. But Naruto's next few words completely rocked Sasuke's entire view of the world, of life itself.

"For one, I watched your feet."

". . ."

Just like that Sasuke's words failed him.

Naruto spoke with a tone that completely sold his explanation. Somehow those words made sense coming out of his mouth. Despite how ridiculous it sounded, Sasuke knew that he was being dead serious. Even Naruto wasn't idiotic enough to say something so absurd. No. He was completely, honestly, horribly sane. Those words were moronic and made no logical sense, but he spoke them like the gospel truth. Sasuke then realized that he was in fact dead.

It was the only possible explanation. The Rasengan had exploded out of his back and sent him to the afterlife. Not heaven of course. Sasuke was most definitely being tortured in hell, condemned to the fate of listening to the moron speak for the rest of time until judgement day. A small part of Sasuke surrendered to the avatar of idiocy sitting next to him, groaning.

"I never thought it was possible Naruto. But that may be the stupidest thing you have ever said, and that is truly saying something."

"Say what you like but its true. I actually learned it from Bushy Brows."

"Of course. The king of idiots." It made way too much sense not to be from Rock Lee of all people.

"Basically, looking at a Sharingan-user's eyes is just suicide unless you have a partner to disrupt your chakra flow, so he learned from Might Guy that all you need to fight an Uchiha competently is watch their feet. You can see how they'll move and be able to counter them, to an extent. I figured it would be a useful trick even if the fox was running genjutsu disruption for me. It wasn't easy to learn let me tell you."

Naruto could still hear Guy and Lee's screams about youth ringing in his ears. Lessons from those two tended to stick when their words would echo in one's dreams.

"That trick shouldn't be enough to fight like you did." Sasuke countered.

"You're right, it wouldn't be, and it wasn't." Naruto's nonchalant tone and chuckle only irritated Sasuke.

"So what the hell else did you use moron? Nothing else can predict an attack like that!"

"I have a friend with me who would respectfully disagree, wouldn't you Kurama?" Naruto asked the empty air with a chuckle, and Sasuke again started to think his rival had gone insane.

**"Kill the Uchiha now Naruto."  
**Suddenly, Naruto's eyes flashed a blood red and formed tiny feral slits. His whisker marks grew wider on his cheeks while he snarled like a beast. He stared at Sasuke with teeth bared while emitting a horrible guttural noise from his throat, and in a demonic voice he spoke words that were not his own. Sasuke realized that this wasn't the moron speaking, but the Nine Tailed Fox. The beast wanted blood, and he would probably get it.

**"We have him at our mercy. Finish him off! Rip him to shreds and tear off his-"**

The fox's rambling was cut short as Naruto shook his head, freeing himself of Kurama's influence with a noticeable annoyance in his blue eyes.

"Ugh, sorry about that. Kurama still doesn't like you." Sasuke was left more than a little disturbed. A tailed beast wanting to kill him was nothing new, but...

"That damn monster has a name?" he asked.

Naruto felt Kurama bristle at being called a mutt. It was amazing he didn't try taking over right now. But then again, the fox and him had reached an understanding. A friendship that softened the beasts nature, though Kurama would never admit it under pain of death. He wouldn't hurt anybody, but he would occasionally lash out in anger with his words and hellish voice. Now that Kurama had calmed down, Naruto looked back at Sasuke and grinned that eternally annoying grin.

"He does. I learned his name a few years back, when I let him loose before the war. I released his seal and we hashed things out, and we eventually came to an understanding. I gained access to his arsenal of abilities, beyond what a jinchuuriki would normally have if they restrained their tailed beast. You see, when my dad sealed away Kurama, he separated him into two halves, yin and yang."

"Interesting." Sasuke mused.

"I got the yang half, and when I released him I gained his full suite of powers, including an ability to sense negative emotions or intentions like anger, hate, a desire to kill and so on. Using that I located the Zetsus during the war. When I got the yin half sealed in me by my dad, I managed to refine it to be more precise."

That part piqued Sasuke's interest, if only from a desire to know how his opponent had gotten so annoyingly strong, and he tilted his head ever so slightly to glance at Naruto.

"With concentration I can sense them in greater detail. If someone tries to stab me from behind, I can sense it. If they try to poison a specific glass, I can sense which glass they put it in based on their killing intent." Naruto chuckled with slightly grim tone.  
"So if you try to stab me in the back, I can feel that motive. Same goes if you try to kick my ribs or throw a kunai at me. They're all linked to a desire to kill, and if its connected to a negative emotion like killing intent or intense anger I can now sense it and know how to avoid it. So with a combination of feet-watching and this...Tailed beast telepathy, I could counter your Sharingan. Shall I go on?" he asked with a deceptively innocent tone that belied his actual emotions.

Sasuke didn't know what those emotions were exactly, but he didn't care anymore. He looked up at the clouds, pointedly trying to ignore Naruto. He had heard what he wanted to know. Naruto had bested him with power gained from his nature as a jinchuuriki. Simple as that. Now all Sasuke could do was wait until he could make a move to catch Naruto off guard. Even with his negative emotion sense, he could only react so fast situated like this, at this close a range.

But if there was one thing Naruto would be forever remembered as, it would be as an absolute moron with a supernatural ability to get on someone's nerves. He possessed a personality like sand paper that could wear away at one's patience, and by now the moron's words were certainly starting to grate away at Sasuke's tolerance for mindless chatter. Every second was like another layer of torment as that insufferably chipper voice kept pushing against him. Naruto seemed not to notice the effect his words were having, or at least he pretended not to.

"Emotion sensing wasn't the only trick I learned. Turns out Kurama had nature affinities of his own. Fire and ice, that manifested like his two halves. Though these came from his emotions, a brutal feral desire to destroy and an intelligent but ruthless killer instinct. It wasn't until several years after he was sealed in me that he started to regain them, I guess he needed time to regenerate all his abilities after being split in half. Being his jinchuuriki, I could access them. Though only after I gained access to some of his chakra did all that stuff manifest in me."

"Fascinating." Sasuke grumbled. Each word boasting of Naruto's superiority made him angrier.

"Yup. Turns out he's not that bad once he stops trying to kill ya. Eventually he regained enough strength to teach me the basics of his techniques. Ice wasn't his real specialty, so I visited the Land of Snow to hone my skill with it. Then I started training with him on fire control, and he is just a natural. After that I started working on my own wind element. Anyway that's where I used those to counter your own techniques. That and the Yeti's Knuckles, that one was kinda tricky to make."

"Be quiet."

"And that flicker on Namikaze you probably noticed, that was the Flying Swallow Technique that Shikamaru learned from Asuma. He told it to me sometime before I left for some of my travels, and I learned how to use it soon after and even improve it a little. As you saw I can manipulate the shape, density, and even its duration to where it would appear for a split second and dissipate soon after, which created the flicker on my sword. Pretty useful right?"

"Shut up." Sasuke ground out.

"Oh, and I can't forget that Cherry Blossom Impact. Sakura's technique as you probably remember. I figured she'd be the best to teach me brute force and power without relying on ninjutsu. She taught me how to use chakra-enhanced strength as well as a few healing tricks, and I trained her how to use the Rasengan. She's an absolute natural with it, she even made her own version of the Rasenshuriken with her earth element. Oh, did you know she can use the earth element now?"

"Shut. Up." Naruto was scratching and pawing at his mind like an eager puppy that wouldn't stop barking in its owners ears.

"That's not even mentioning the chakra control I refined, or the swordplay I practiced with Sai, or the stealth I picked up from Kakashi-sensei, or the weapons training from Tenten. Hell when I think about it, even Itachi-"

"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT THE HELL UP!" Sasuke finally burst. "Why do you insist on lecturing me on your inherent superiority!? Are you trying to get a sick sense of accomplishment out of finally beating me, some confession of how you were always the better man I could never hope to be!?" Sasuke coughed up a large amount of blood and his lungs felt like they were being rubbed with sandpaper, but he didn't care. He just didn't care anymore!

"Are you trying to make me see the error of my ways and convince me to come back to the village? Because all you will have accomplished is bringing the most dangerous man in the world into your homes, where I can destroy the village from within before you can even try to stop me! Your attempts to bring me back have been futile, and there's nothing you can do to convince me to change my ways! What must you see to understand that Naruto!? Even when I'm trying to kill you, you're still trying to 'save' me!? Will I have to kill Kakashi or Sakura with my bare hands before you actually get it through your thick skull that I'm never coming back!? You won't ever save me! I'm! Not! Your! Friend!"

Naruto went silent. Deathly silent.

His expression faded, and his eyes simply lost all joy. Where they once showed a spark of mirth as he had talked were now somber and drab. A lifeless gaze that drilled into Sasuke's soul, piercing his very being with those clear blue eyes that were burdened with immense pain, and all the wisdom that came with it. He looked tired, weary of something Sasuke couldn't see. Sasuke almost didn't recognize the person in front of him as Naruto Uzumaki, loudmouth and boastful shinobi.

No, this was a warrior who was tired of war, a man who could kill any person who crossed his path but didn't want to ever kill. This wasn't a kid screaming of being Hokage, this was a physical god, someone who could shape history as he pleased or conquer all of the shinobi world, but yet only wanted an end to all the fighting. At the same time, Naruto's eyes looked past Sasuke.  
Actually, they looked _through_ Sasuke. Absentmindedly lingering on some far-off image with only a passing interest, an unfocused and vacant stare into a dark abyss that he couldn't, or wouldn't look away from. Even though he stood victorious – for now – Naruto was a completely different person to the loudmouth Sasuke once knew. This man of unsurpassed power simply looked...Disappointed.

"I knew I couldn't save you Sasuke." As the rain fell, the two men remained in the dead center of the barren, ash-laden valley. The west and dirty ground slurred and mixed under the continued downpour, a moist but dead land as all that remained from their bout, a burnt valley. For what felt like an eternity, no words were exchanged, no sarcastic bards or attempts at reconciliation came from either person. It was a dead silence that to Sasuke, reflected the connection the two men had; none.

Naruto let out a tired sigh. "I didn't come here tonight in the hopes I'd convince you to stop going down this destructive path you've so eagerly forged of your own free will."

"So why," Sasuke painfully coughed again "why did you come here? If not with the intent to kill me or save me, why!?" He strained out the words despite the intense burning in his chest.

"I told you already. Because..." Naruto sighed. He untied his drenched headband, feeling it weighing down on his head. With a tiny sad smile he gently lifted it off his forehead to rest it in his hands, looking down at the spiral leaf symbol of his home with a wistful twinge in his eyes.

"Because I made a promise." he said.

"Hah, you mentioned. Is it that same damn promise to Sakura to try 'bringing me back' to her?" Sasuke taunted. Naruto responded curtly and with a matter-of-fact tone.

"No actually. She dropped that one years ago."

". . . What."

"Yeah. She was done with that ages ago. We were hanging out this one night during the winter." Naruto's eyes grew distant as memories came back to him.

"It was snowing so damn hard, so cold outside even with our heavy coats on. Believe it or not she invited me into her place, we had some nice hot chocolate." A smile formed on his lips. "We spent so long talking to each other after that, watching the snow fall. I remember saying I'd do anything to help her, and she got this look in her eyes. It was like she was afraid of losing me."

Naruto coughed as he rubbed his burnt arm, looking at Sasuke again. "She said I shouldn't worry about keeping that old promise to her. She didn't care about it anymore. She was so busy chasing the past that she never looked to see what she was missing. Between that damn promise and me, she'd much rather have a 'blonde baka' with her."

For once Sasuke didn't have anything to say to Naruto. He couldn't form any words. The image that Sakura had simply discarded a promise that had motivated both her and the moron for years frankly left the Uchiha unsure of what to think.

She had "dropped it."

It sounded like it was a pointless to her, nothing but a passing fancy.

"But that wasn't the promise I'm keeping tonight." Naruto clarified. "She did ask me to keep another one before I came here, but that doesn't concern your well being." Naruto responded, not looking up from his headband. Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

This didn't make any sense. "So if not her, what promise did you make, and to whom?"

"Myself." Naruto tightly gripped the headband, and he looked at Sasuke with piteous eyes.

"I promised myself that I wouldn't let my family and friends, the people who've given me so much, live in fear. That they wouldn't go to sleep haunted by memories of the past, or wake up to the world afraid of a new day. Every day I see how worried the people are. Nearly all the shinobi are afraid of venturing out of the village for missions. Shopkeepers and restaurants are always closing at sundown because no one's willing to venture outside when its dark. Even the children are terrified."

Naruto wiped his steadily watering eyes, retraining his gaze on Sasuke, faintly accusatory in its look. "They're scared by rumors of the 'Last Uchiha' coming in the night to attack them in their homes, burning the village in unquenchable black flames or trapping them in wide-awake nightmares with his eyes. I never see them playing anymore, they just run to their homes as soon as school is done because they're scared of the night."

The way Naruto talked, Sasuke almost thought Naruto had kids of his own. He certainly looked at Sasuke like a father out to protect his children, someone who would do anything to ensure their safety, and his words only further enforced his resolve.

"Before I came here a thousand possibilities passed through my mind. You killing me was the greatest concern, followed closely by you somehow taking control of me like a puppet. There was also the prospect that we'd end up killing each other, which was perfectly acceptable in my mind if I had no other choice. If I was to die here, I could at least ensure you'd come with me. I even expected the rest of Team 7 to follow me and try to intervene in the fight." He sighed. "Kami knows Sakura would rip me out of the afterlife just to scold me."

"But my point is. . ." Naruto swept his hair back, and looked at Sasuke with eyes like a cold killer. Eyes that were completely focused in achieving a goal.

"That saving you was never an option." Sasuke had to resist flinching at those words.

"You really think I came here because I still believe you're just a poor lost soul wanting a hug and reassuring words from the villagers? No. I'm not here for you. I'm here because my **family **deserves to live without fear. That is the promise I made to myself. To let them go on living without ghosts of the past haunting their dreams."

"So why rant to me about all those who've given you strength?" Sasuke questioned with only a hint of malice in his voice. Naruto's resolve was...Respectable, but it didn't explain his nonsensical ramblings. In response to the inquiry Naruto simply rotated the headband to show its symbol to Sasuke, tapping it slightly with a faint metallic clink.

"Because I wanted you to understand. I kind of hoped that explaining how I won and acting like when we were kids would cause you to lower you guard, but clearly it only pissed you off. I don't know. I wanted you to see that what beat you were the very things you so eagerly sever with the Chidori."

"Which would be?"

"Bonds, Sasuke." he said with a faint smile "Bonds people form by being together. Learning together, laughing together, crying together, fighting together." Naruto's fist tightened around the headband.

"All our experiences forge bonds, connections with other people that give us strength and make us who we are. I know it might sound silly. But those bonds are what saved me from a life as a worthless and angry street-rat who wanted to watch Konoha burn. They gave me strength to beat Gaara, Pain, Obito, even Madara. They are what defeated you tonight. They made me strong, strong enough to beat you at your best."

Naruto turned the headband back around. His eyes glossed over as memories of all his experiences, battles, and trials came back. Each one a moment to be treasured in how they helped him grow.

"I was definitely weak once, weak enough to want the deaths of everyone in Konoha for crossing me. But I forged bonds with others as I kept refusing to give in to misery or anger. I drew on those bonds for help until I could stand on my own, fight with my own power. Power, I learned, that could surpass any seen by the shinobi world, including Madara or the First Hokage to put it bluntly." Naruto gently placed the headband on his lap with a faint chuckle while he looked at Sasuke, who stared back with seemingly indifferent eyes. But that indifference flickered under the jinchuuriki's now stoic yet fiery gaze.

"But even with all that power in my hands I never forgot the importance of the connections that got me such strength, and remembering them this whole fight gave me the will and drive to push back against the strength you gained from your single-minded goals. While you do have power, quite a lot of it in fact, you lost because you only fought for yourself. When it came to that final clash, your single goal fueled by your anger failed you." Naruto seemed to look at Sasuke with a piteous gaze.

"I had hoped you would see that, to understand what you had been missing this whole time." As he spoke Naruto titled his head, looking down at the spiral-shaped wound in Sasuke's chest.

He was fairly impressed with his handiwork, despite its gruesome mark. The jutsu hadn't dealt an immediately lethal blow, but it had been in contact with Sasuke long enough to have done some serious internal damage. There was no telling what exactly without an autopsy, but while the Rasengan's detonation prevented the creation of a giant hole through the Uchiha's black heart, it had spread the damage across a wider area, thus creating a spiral-shaped wound and slight indent in the body. The skin was completely gone, and muscles were quite visible at this point.

But there was no blood, at least not any in its liquid form. The Rasengan's properties had effectively cauterized the chest wound before it even had a chance to bleed, which created an odd black tint or covering in the shredded nerves and tissue. Naruto had only to look at Sasuke's oddly burnt stump of a hand to see that very little blood had actually been shed in the attack. In fact it had all been reduced to a form of powder when the attack collided. That powder was now collecting into a wet pile in the rain, slowly hydrating it back into a liquid state. Naruto had seen that a Rasengan to the chest was never good for one's health, especially when it exploded in such a violent fashion. He cursed himself for doing something so reckless for a ridiculous hope like teaching Sasuke.

"I wanted to give you some answers so you could have some measure of peace before-." Naruto sighed, resting his face in his gloved hand, apparently too weary or unwilling to finish his sentence. But Sasuke was all too happy to oblige.

"Before you kill me? Before you execute me for the good of Konoha?" Sasuke accused. The words caused Naruto look up from his hand. Sasuke had expected tears, a sad frown, or perhaps an angry snarl, but he only saw a bitterly amused smirk.

"I killed you when I decided you couldn't be saved."

Sasuke felt an unsettling shiver travel up his spine, a tingle of fear at cold words he never expected to hear from Naruto while he lazily pointed at the large red wound in Sasuke's chest.

"The Rasengan is finishing up on that front. Even if your chakra network wasn't horribly disrupted and your stores drained from the battle, your hand is vaporized, you can't move your legs worth a damn, and the little mark I left on your chest is slowly killing you. Even your body can't handle the trauma of a point-blank chakra buzz-saw like a Rasengan."

Naruto leaned in a bit closer to look Sasuke dead-on as he remained silent. But it wasn't with anger or hate, not a tear-filled regret either. Just the neutral gaze of a shinobi who was accepting was must be done yet took no joy in doing it.

"I honestly did hope I could save you. Once. With every bone in my body I tried to bring you back, even if I had to break all of **your **bones in the process. I trained in the hopes I could bring back you, my brother, and make Sakura happy again. But as you went farther and farther down that path, you kept lashing out at those trying to help you." Naruto bared his teeth, and a feral snarl of pure anger escaped his lips.

"Then you. . ." Naruto paused to calm himself, making his voice drop from a Kurama-enhanced growl to his normal voice. "Then you tried kill Kakashi-sensei and Sakura. That was what clinched it. That's what made me realize. . ." He sighed, closing his mouth and quietly dismissing his anger, refocusing his mind with a deep, calming breath.

"I realized that. . . I couldn't do anything to bring you back. Coming here tonight, my only thought was of protecting Konoha by any means necessary. If I had to sacrifice myself, I would. At least if you ended up killing only me there might have been some form of peace in the aftermath, maybe your rage would be sated with just killing me. But I gave Sakura my word that I'd come back to her." Naruto wore a slight smile on his lips as he remembered her smiling face. His grin faded however when he looked back at Sasuke.

"I would not die here. I knew you wouldn't let anything but death stop you, so one of us was going to die. It was inevitable. As it is now, there is absolutely no way in hell I'm ever letting you come anywhere near my home, or my family."

Then, just for an instant, Naruto's eyes changed. For a single moment just barely long enough for Sasuke to catch, Naruto let himself feel regret. Regret for failing his friend, for being unable to save a person he once considered his brother. For just a single moment, Naruto let himself feel sorrow at how it had to end like this. He couldn't think of anything else to say.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save you Sasuke."

There.

He had said it.

There was nothing else he could say really. He had tried to save him years ago, and failed. He had tried to stop him at the end of the war, and failed. He tried to show Sasuke where he was found wanting in the hopes that the Uchiha would learn something and die with relative peace only to see that too had failed. All he could do now was just apologize to Sasuke before the "Last Uchiha" passed into the next world.

With a heavy sigh, Naruto retied his headband. The tighter he pulled the black cloth around his head the better he felt about himself. Maybe he was masking his inner turmoil with readjusting his clothes and equipment, trying to give himself something else to focus on. Naruto didn't know, and he didn't care to press himself for answers. Right now he wanted to complete his mission. The mission lying on the muddy ground in a broken heap, barely able to move. Naruto rose from his seat, wiping his sleeves and coat tail of the flecks of mud while Sasuke remained immobile. Naruto almost pitied him, being in that sorry state.

_"Naruto,"_ Kurama spoke from within his container's mind. _"if you wish, we can leave him here to die from his wounds. He can fade away without you having to deal the final blow. We can let him pass like a bad dream."_ It was a rare moment of kindness from the fox, an offer to let him wash his hands of this dilemma. He had already done more for the world any shinobi of the past. Nobody would judge him for backing out from killing someone like this. It was a way out.

But Naruto hesitated. He couldn't very well leave someone as powerful as Sasuke alone even in this state, who knows what he might have up his sleeve?

But then, Sasuke said something Naruto never expected to hear from the Uchiha, even when they were teammates.

"May I ask a favor of you Naruto?"

Naruto remained silent. He couldn't be serious.

"I have a last request." Sasuke concluded. "I do not want to die like this."

Naruto sighed. He knew exactly what Sasuke was asking from him.

"If I must die, I'd prefer it be by the sword. I will never accept defeat from anyone, not even when I've been injured like this. I will never forgive the village for what they did to me and my clan." Sasuke snickered. "I will never forgive you or Sakura or Kakashi for standing in my way so many times. If you were to plunge that damn sword through my chest, at least then you can be sure I'm not coming back. It'd be a better end than rotting away in the rain, don't you think?"

Naruto looked down, unsure of what to think. Sparing him was out of the question, but granting him any form of a 'good death' was unthinkable to almost the entire world. There were many whom would happily leave this man to rot in conditions far worse than this, and there were many more that would leap at the chance to slaughter the Last Uchiha before he killed anymore of them. Nobody with half a brain would consider honoring a last request from Sasuke Uchiha.

But then again, Naruto was the only one alive stupid enough to show Sasuke kindness.

Naruto flexed his fingers, and twenty feet away from him Namikaze suddenly hummed with faint power from its embedded position. Wind chakra channeled by Naruto flowed through the weapon's body to bathe it in a faint blue glow. The blade started moving, just slightly, inching its way out of the ground.  
Naruto glanced over at the blade, noticing Sasuke was watching it with some interest buried beneath a cloak of apathy. Naruto couldn't tell what he was thinking, and was glad that he couldn't.

Naruto splayed out his fingers, summoning the blade to his side. The weapon shot out of the ground, flying handle-first straight at him. As it flew, the blade whistled its song, signaling that it was ready to fight again. Naruto leisurely snatched the sword out of the air and twirled it at his side. Namikaze rang a single, sombre note that repeated every time it was rotated in Naruto's hand. Looking at Naruto, Sasuke seemed to hide his contempt beneath an arrogant smirk.

"You must be proud of yourself Naruto." he said. "At last you'll have your victory. Now you can prove yourself the stronger being. Now you'll finally triumph over one who has caused so much chaos." Sasuke grinned. "You can't deny that this won't give you some satisfaction."

Naruto remained silent.

"Admit it. I'm the only person who will ever know that you secretly wanted this all. To be the glorious hero of the world who struck down the great Madara before finally defeating the villainous snake Sasuke Uchiha. You wanted to kill me since that day at the Valley of the End. You've hated me with every fiber of your being haven't you." Sasuke's eyes, while devoid of the Sharingan's power nevertheless radiated with contempt and hate. He wanted to see that the only person who could ever stop him was no better than he was, to drag down Naruto to his level.

"I said it at the beginning of this fight Sasuke." he uttered

"What?"

"I never really **wanted** to kill you." Naruto would never give Sasuke the satisfaction.

"Bullshit, you-"

"It's not bullshit. I've never enjoyed killing, and hopefully I never will. I don't hate you either. Not anymore at least."

Namikaze spun a little bit faster in his hand, repeating the swords wavering note over and over, oscillating the tone from a high pitched shriek to a deep and low hum as the metal sliced through the air. Naruto glanced at the blade.

"I did hate you, once. For turning your back on everything, for trying to kill me to gain power. But enough people have tried to kill me that it's doesn't bother me much anymore. However, " Naruto's eyes went cold as he looked at his sword, regaining that merciless killer instinct that could make grown men flee in terror.

"I will never ever forgive you for making Sakura cry." His gaze shifted back to the Uchiha, but this time with a cold defiance of everything Sasuke wanted to achieve. Of trying to kill Naruto, and failing that, trying to corrupt him in his dying moments. Both had failed, and Sasuke's ambitions of the destruction of Konoha would never come to fruition.

"But the world doesn't need that hatred. Grudges and anger have been holding us all back since the Sage had those two sons of his." Naruto smirked. "If you ask me that shtick he gave us about being his sons reincarnations was bullshit. I've never cared for someone saying I don't have free will."

"But even if it is bullshit, that damned cycle's been haunting the shinobi world for who knows how long. It's screwed up this world worse than you ever could. It's been repeating over and over. But I'm breaking that cycle tonight. The world is getting a fresh start. I'm letting the hatred die here. All of it will die here with you. "

Sasuke fell silent, but continued to glower up at Naruto with pure anger in his eyes. Sasuke seemed to be scanning Naruto for a weakness, any sort of opening to exploit even when Naruto, in relatively good condition, had Namikaze at the ready. As he looked at Sasuke's eyes, Naruto felt a slight sliver of pity slip into his mind. A friend who easily could have risen to one of the greatest shinobi in history, whom inherited legendary power backed by an indomitable will and natural talent. By all rights Sasuke could have been the one to lead the entire shinobi world into a new golden age. Now his anger and hate had forced him into this low state, dying in the pouring rain and ash-laden mud. Even here, he couldn't understand why he had lost, never accepting the truth that could have saved him from the path he chose.

_"Sasuke, just what the hell is it going to take for you to-"_

"Where did you say those gloves came from?"

Naruto slowly looked down at Sasuke, surprised. He stopped spinning Namikaze, resting the blunt side of the blade on his shoulder, ending the blades death song. For once he was the one surprised with the look in his opponents eyes. Sasuke lay in the ground, all bravado and pride gone. He just looked up at the sky, eyes half-closed with a neutral gaze. Naruto could swear Sasuke looked defeated, not just in his body but his mind as well.

"What?" he asked with mounting confusion.

"Must I repeat myself?" Sasuke responded.

Naruto only became more confused when he felt something emanating off his friend. Some kind of energy field not unlike chakra, yet different.

Naruto realized that this was a negative emotion he was sensing. His sixth sense was just barely picking something up beneath an omnipresent cloud of killing intent, and Naruto had no idea of what it was. Almost unnoticeable, a twinge of something. It wasn't hot anger and certainly not cold misery.

"Where did you get those gloves that could stop Kusanagi?" Sasuke repeated, not with a single ounce of sarcasm or bitterness in his tone. In fact, his mouth seemed to twitch, almost forming a minuscule smile. Naruto's eyes drifted from his gloves down to Sasuke's, and felt that strange energy field of Sasuke's slowly grow in intensity, like it was gaining weight. Naruto couldn't quite figure what it was, at least it didn't make any sense to be coming from Sasuke of all people. Naruto could practically smell the guilt in the air, the faint scent of remorse that now seemed to actually be matching Sasuke's anger. Naruto responded with slight caution.

"Sakura," he responded "Sakura made them."

Sasuke looked up at the clouds, his expression unreadable.

". . .Strength of bonds, huh?" he muttered

Sasuke's words were only barely audible to Naruto, who's eyebrow arched in confusion. But then, as the meaning of Sasuke's words and tone sank in, Naruto let out a faint smirk of his own. What Sasuke had been feeling this whole time wasn't anger or misery. It was regret.

Humorous in its grim nature, Sasuke might have realized what he had been missing. Now it was time to bring this war to its end, to remove the last great threat.

With a heavy heart, Naruto wordlessly lifted Namikaze off his shoulder and held it at his side. A quiet hum of power echoed in its frame as Naruto channeled freezing chakra into the blade, coating it in a thin layer of ice born from his Winter's Breath jutsu that could create ice or numb a target on impact. The weapon trailed a faint wispy wind as Naruto rested on one knee next to Sasuke.

Naruto shared one last look with Sasuke. One final wordless exchange between great warriors. Naruto eyebrows rose in a questioning look, asking if Sasuke was ready as Naruto grasped his blade. Sasuke looked back and gave a faint, accepting nod. He was tired of waiting, and it was time to be off, as it were. He rested his tired head on the mud.

Namikaze left a faint trail of icy mist as it swung through the air. The blade for once did not sing its usual melody. Either from the ice jutsu or the slow movements of its wielder, the weapon remained silent. The sounds made by Namikaze normally helped Naruto focus in a battle, but not today, not for this. No song of battle would fit this bleak execution.

The sword was brought into Naruto's hands as he raised it overhead with its tip aimed at Sasuke's scarred chest, ready to snuff yet another life from the world. With one release of his muscles, Naruto would finally end the life of one who could and would cause untold death and destruction if he lived. He would wipe the last great enemy from the earth, the penultimate terror, the "Last Uchiha." Naruto was almost content to close his eyes and let it be done without any thought. But he still had one last thing to say to his lifelong enemy, and friend.

"Goodbye Sasuke." he spoke, a faint twinge of regret in his voice. But it was buried beneath a mask of neutrality and merciless shinobi instinct. Sasuke didn't look at Naruto, but gave one last tiny, almost sincere smile as he spoke his last words.

"Goodbye Naruto." he said

Naruto's grip on the hilt tightened, and the icy coating hissed as mist billowed from the blade as it dropped.

The rain continued to fall on the lonely valley, forming sickly black and brown puddles under the dark, heavy clouds. This water would not sustain any animals or trees. The creatures who lived around the fortress were already mixed into the soil as piles of soot. In this newly created death valley, there was only the heavy rain and ash. The sky continued to weep, turning the entire valley into one filthy mass of mud. But it wasn't just water that fell to the ground tonight.  
A single, large metal shape joined them, leaving cold icy mist in its wake as it descended through the air. A faint metallic tune echoed from it, no victorious battle-cry or ecstatic wail of the fight, but the quiet hiss of death. As the rain pierced the ash to embed itself in the dirt, so too did the metal pierce through flesh. The frozen aura it carried paralyzed organs before the metal itself made contact, traveling and piercing through muscle and bone as a hot knife cuts through butter.

The rain touched on the soil, and so did the metal. Its tip continued straight into the ground without any resistance, and the blade went so deep that all that remained above the body it pierced was the hilt grasped by Naruto. As the muddy water flowed throughout the valley, a faint red streak soon joined it.

Around the body grew a black, muddy pool of blood.

Sasuke's body briefly twitched at the sword's contact, before it went limp and grew still. As he had many times before, Naruto heard the quickening heartbeat that rapidly lost its piece. As the pulse dropped, there was the quiet sigh of a combatant breathing their last. Naruto could feel the chakra of Sasuke quickly fade from an insurmountable might that had once rivaled Madara, draining away and away into nothing.

He could feel the Sharingans die. The last of the Uchiha's eyes, that had sought to end so many lives, that boasted of a legacy of power and near-unstoppable might, had finally lost their light.

The blonde swordsman remained where he stood, staring right at the crimson mud. His face bore no scowl, no angry snarl or triumphant grin. He simply looked down with emotionless eyes, and with neutral gaze he pulled his sword from the corpse. It left as easily as it entered, slipping through the body with nary a difficulty. There was no blood on the metal itself, just on the frigid coating that moved with its hissing tone. Soon the ice was dispelled, melting off the blade and splashing to the ground, taking the Uchiha's blood with it. The sword was as clean as the day it was forged.

Pulling up his hood, he let out a quiet sigh.

He had accomplished his mission. He had saved his village. He had saved his friends and teammates. He had saved his beloved cherry blossom. The Orange Fire Shadow stood victorious over the Last Uchiha. Naruto had ended the war. But with the bittersweet taste of victory so very fresh in his mouth, and the rain and blood flowing around his feet, for the first time that night Naruto felt a shiver run through his spine. For the first time that night, Naruto felt cold.

The war was over.

He had won.

And he felt cold.

* * *

Techniques (In Alphabetical Order :D )

**-Amaterasu's Wild Hunt:** A variation on the standard black fire shot, this jutsu requires a more controlled nature transformation. These black fireballs that can track a source of chakra other than the users own. Once they hit the target they burst and spread the fire around as much as the target as they can reach. One shot can mean death. Though they lack maneuverability and can be evaded by a fast enough opponent.

**-Chakra Enhanced Strength:** A relatively common technique, though most famously used by Tsunade and Sakura. Chakra is channeled &amp; focused into the fists to greatly enhance the users strength, to terrifying degrees. The technique can absolutely obliterate any obstacles. Sakura refined it to enhance any part of her body such as feet, elbows, even her forehead, &amp; Naruto quickly mastered this technique with Sakura's teachings. It can also be used to enhance running, jumping, and agility.

**-Cherry Blossom Impact: **A simple yet terrifying punch that releases an immense amount of chakra into a target. When it strikes the ground, it scatters large boulders and debris that are scattered like flower petals in a circle around the point of impact, thus giving the technique its name.

**-Chidori Lightning Stream:** Similar to Vacuum Blade, Sasuke channels his lightning element into his Sword of Kusanagi to create a slash of electrical energy that chirps like a normal Chidori but much louder. It can be altered to either simply electrocute a target or slice them on impact. With enough skill and high enough chakra, these can be fired off very rapidly. This is typically performed with an Iaido stance.

**-Final Susanoo: **The last and greatest form of the Susanoo. The user manifests the Perfect Susanoo, then compresses it to a human-sized armor which wraps around them to complete the fusion. At this size, the Susanoo's already terrifying destructive power increases immensely. Whatever weapons the user has can be enhanced with the Susanoo's own power to create an arsenal enhanced by Amaterasu or the jutsu's strength. The end result is a form that is at least ten times stronger than Madara's own Perfect Susanoo, and every strike dwarfs the legendary Uchiha's sword-strikes.

**-Flight Technique:** The user uses their chakra nature to lift of the ground and fly freely. By manipulating nature transformation, the user can achieve flight with most of the elemental transformations, such fire, lightning, wind, or even earth.

**-Flying Swallow: **This technique is most commonly used to augment a blades killing power. By channeling chakra into a weapon typically made of special metal, a visible stream of chakra forms. While any type of nature transformation can be used, wind transformation is ideal for its cutting power. The chakra can be used with great versatility to make various shapes around a weapon, or reappear for a split second before dissipating.

**-Grand Fireball Jutsu:** Seen as a "coming of age" rite amongst the Uchiha, this jutsu can be released in the form of a massive fireball, or spewed out as a stream of flames. The more chakra is pumped into the technique, the more destructive and explosive the flames will be. With enough power, they could level an entire fortress in one shot.

**-Great Fire Destruction:** Using chakra to create fire, the user shoots an intense stream of fire that can set virtually anything ablaze. With proper nature and shape manipulation the user can give it "piercing" power to punch straight through walls or even other fire techniques.

**-Ice Golem's Fist: **An ice fist at least four times as large as Naruto's own fist, this technique is very heavy and acts as an ideal battering ram against enforced positions or thick walls. Its weight is virtually unnoticeable by the wielder, but **very **noticeable to whomever gets hit by it.

**-Lightning God's Black Flame: **A technique that could kill even the strongest of opponents, this jutsu is formed from a combination of two nearly unstoppable forces: the black flames of Amaterasu, and actual lightning. Whereas nearly all lightning jutsu are simply energized chakra, some techniques like Kirin are formed from real lightning, far more devastating than any normal jutsu. With this, the user takes lightning from the sky and directs it into a weapon, any weapon. Then once that is done, they cast Amaterasu onto the weapon as well, controlling it and the lightning in tandem to make an attack capable of untold destruction. When it strikes, the target is hit by pure lightning and unquenchable flames of pure agony.

**-Negative Emotion Sense:** A unique ability to sense negative emotions in others such as killing intent, hatred, or even great sadness. Since the war, Naruto honed it to sense actions or intents fueled by negative emotions. A killing desire can reveal the intent to slit a throat or punch someone's stomach for example. This allows Naruto to predict an opponent's movements if they have anger or hate in their thoughts at that moment, though the technique requires some level of concentration or "zen" state on his part, which can be disrupted.

**-Susanoo's Flight: **A manifestation of Susanoo's wings scaled down to fit the user as if they were their own wings. They are naturally very durable, and are manipulated by the users thoughts for precise and graceful flight. Sasuke's experimenting with this have made him deadly in aerial combat with his maneuverability.

**-Tailed Sage Mode:** Naruto's new, stronger tailed beast mode with sage mode mixed in. Now that he possess both halves of the fox, Naruto's power exploded to where he defeated Madara single-handed. The mixture of tailed beast and nature chakra greatly increases the power of the technique, and Naruto's skill at shaping the chakra shroud only increases with the enhanced physical attributes of the nature chakra.  
Due to the now very close bond of jinchuuriki and tailed beast, Naruto can sustain this mode indefinitely, and Kurama can now manifest his chakra form independently of Naruto and act on his own with the same benefits from nature chakra. The true strength in this technique is when Kurama essentially fuses his form with Naruto's. The full sum of chakra explodes out, and is then concentrated back into the vessel's tissue and bones instead of retreating back into the containing space. This increases the power of the mode, giving Naruto the added strength and speed of the strongest remaining tailed beast in his entire body, as well as magnifying the intensity of his aura and chakra cloak.

**-Tailed Sage Art: Primordial Hurricane Blade: **A combination of three or more elemental transformations, this technique is technically a kinjutsu. The balance of three elemental chakras requires so much skill and practice that it can take years just to manifest all three at once. The combination of the three is so volatile and powerful that the slightest slip up can send all the focused chakra outward as a blast of devastating energy, killing or annihilating anything in its path including the user. The technique presented a dilemma to Naruto, who sought to manifest his fire, wind, and ice natures into one attack. The three wouldn't mix, until he applied the principals of the Rasengan to it. With careful manipulation of elemental chakra threads and creation of a durable shell, Naruto created a technique stronger than the Rasenshiruken. The result is the wrath of nature condensed into a single attack, capable of being manifested as a Rasengan, but refined to coat around a blade for an even more focused and devastating attack.

**-Vacuum Blade:** The user swings their blade to create a massive blast of air that can knock aside projectiles and potentially disrupt lightning techniques. Can also be manipulated to deliver "soft air," normal gusts, and "hard air" which can slice through wood, rocks, metal, etc.

**-Winters Breath:** The user channels freezing cold air that creates incredibly hard ice on contact. The ice can numb and paralyze a target, making it useful for nonlethal attacks, and medical procedures for relatively painless cuts. The jutsu can also be channeled into any object the user commands it to, infusing it with numbing or ice-creating properties.

**-Yeti's Knuckles:** Naruto channels his ice chakra, forming brass-knuckle shaped ice constructs. These are remarkable light yet are denser than steel. Like his other ice techniques, Naruto can easily shift these into other forms, such as adding spikes to the knuckles or making them into his Ice Golem's Fist.


	7. Part 7: Ya Darn Kids

This wasn't exactly how Sakura had expected her night to go.

A quiet, uncomfortable silence between friends as Tsunade delivered a grim service. She didn't expect to be standing in the Konoha cemetery.

At least she had hoped she wouldn't be standing in the cemetery. Again.

She had forgotten just how many funerals she had attended since the war ended.

Each one had been more grim than the last, as everyone here was continuously beaten over the head with the knowledge of just how horrific the war had been.

Some of them had been eager for a "real" fight to prove their worth and gain glory. But the Fourth Great Shinobi War had snuffed out that lust for blood. Thousands had died in the span of three days. Some had been massacred by resurrected shinobi, others were killed by Zetsus, and many, far too many had died at the Ten Tails hands. The unparalleled loss of life had made even the most combat-eager shinobi want nothing more than peace. Nobody wanted a repeat of anything close to such a catastrophic battle as the Fourth War.

People near and dear to those attending now had been lost, and that made this all the more difficult. Shikaku Nara, Inoichi Yamanaka, Neji. The memory of those deaths were likely to never leave the minds of those here.

Today's funeral would probably be far different though.

Because even though they were technically remembering a Konoha shinobi, nobody was exactly eager to remember Sasuke Uchiha. In the eyes of every almost every person Sakura could see various mixtures of regret, disappointment, disgust, misery, or anger. Some were somewhat sad to see Sasuke dead, like Ino or Kakashi-sensei of course. But many of those gathered here had done so out of obligation and respect to one person, and it definitely wasn't to Sasuke.

No, the person they were here for stood next to Sakura with his hand entwined with her own, and he was the one person she couldn't read here. Ironically, he was the person she felt closest to, like he was her other half.

But despite how close they were, Sakura couldn't get a read on Naruto. He had remained eerily still next to her, staring at where Sasuke's body lay. Throughout the funeral he had remained silent, something she had never thought to see from him of all people. He kept his vigil without fail. His gaze was affixed to the freshly built funeral pyre that stood ready to burn, waiting for when the ceremony ended.

Funeral pyres were uncommon amongst shinobi, but they were an occasional practice by ANBU and hunter-nin for disposing of bodies that could reveal a village's secrets to enemies, and while Naruto wished it wasn't so, it was a very real danger he and the village would not risk. Even when Sasuke was dead, he could still indirectly wreak havoc if someone tried to recover his corpse, or even its remains. A funeral pyre was the only way to both protect the village and pay Sasuke some form of respect, a warrior's death like in Tobirama &amp; Madara's time.

To Sakura the pyre was quite an impressive creation. It was at least six feet tall and very wide, built with a pyramid like structure of many heavy logs surrounding a thick and tightly packed pile of brambles, sticks, bark, and leaves. The entire structure was surrounded by dozens of boulders. It was simple but grand, and it would serve its purpose well. Naruto had spent all of yesterday making it, focusing his efforts entirely on aligning the logs, stuffing in brambles, and surrounding it would large rocks so intensely that the thought of medical attention or sleep had completely slipped his mind even as the amateur bandaging around his arm rubbed at his scorched and blackened flesh. He likely hadn't even thought to return to his apartment. All day and night he had occupied himself with building the pyre in the Konoha cemetery.

It was only at two in the morning did Naruto finally complete his project, placing Sasuke' body atop the mountainous pile wrapped in black cloth. Even then he had refused to leave the cemetery. When asked by Tsunade, he had declared he would stand guard against whoever would try to take or deface Sasuke's body until the funeral began. Sakura only wished she could say that such an act was unthinkable in the village.

Despite the Hokage's pleads that he get some rest, Naruto had remained adamant on his position as guard. Kakashi had tried talking to him as well but to no avail, partially because he could sympathize with Naruto's position of having to fight a former friend. Naruto was completely dedicated to his watch, standing in front of the pyre with Namikaze at the ready.

Sakura meanwhile had been on call at the hospital. Strolling around the forests and beating up bandits had only helped her calm down so much, so she had returned to medical work when she got back. Out of an intense need of a distraction she had absolutely steeped herself in paperwork and patient care, working with such dedication that she was practically running the entire building. She was so focused on keeping herself busy that she somehow didn't register word of Naruto's return until the end of her shift at midnight, and even then she had to reorganize the workload that she had so generously taken onto herself back onto the hospital staff, all of whom were quick to usher her out for the sake of her rest and their sanity. It had been a ridiculously tricky task to shift the workload back onto the staff, making her lose track of the time yet again.

So it was only at three in the morning when she finally came to the cemetery with bag under her eyes. She felt like she could've collapsed at any second.  
By then the entire Konoha 11 was there around Naruto, each one having tried fruitlessly to convince him to go home and rest, along with a sizable squad of ANBU who came to stand watch. It looked pretty hopeless.

But everyone could see that Naruto's stoic resolve had faltered ever so slightly when he caught the scent of cherry blossoms on the air. The rest of his senses followed soon after to confirm what he already knew.

Sakura was here. Her bright emerald eyes almost made him weep, if he hadn't been so tired.

Likewise when Sakura herself had seen his shimmering blue orbs, she had almost wept in joy. But she couldn't. She was just too damn tired to tackle him and slap him out of joy and anger like normal. So instead she had walked up to him. Just quietly strolled up to the man over whom she had spent days working to keep from worrying about his battle. She was worn out, but their friends could see she was miles better than when Naruto had left. All the nervousness and fear were gone from her eyes, and she gave a warm smile to the blonde moron.

She had cupped his cheek and looked deep into his eyes, bringing his gaze to meet another's for the first time since he came home. She felt his whisker marks, those marks she had petted so many times before.

The others had fallen dead silent as those two had looked at each other, a thousand words passing between them without uttering a single syllable. If there was any form of telepathy in this world, those two had achieved it.

Then without another word or second of hesitation, Naruto quietly sheathed Namikaze, nodded at Tsunade with a smile, and walked home with Sakura. Kakashi then quickly assigned a round-the-clock watch on the pyre until the funeral the following afternoon, mainly to make sure Naruto and Sakura had time to rest.

The night had passed, and the day had run its course into the late afternoon. A radiant red sky now shined overhead while the sun inched ever closer down into the horizon. The light glistened on the funeral pyre and the black cloths worn by those attending, casting an autumnal glow on the whole cemetery. It was a beautiful sight, sadly marred by the grim circumstance that brought them all here. Though Sakura was more concerned with Naruto's well-being than the funeral itself. Since last night the two hadn't spoken a word to each other. She did fully understand why he remained silent, and she had done so as well, knowing they could communicate just fine.

Last night when the stars were shining down on them, it almost seemed blasphemous to break the peaceful silence between them. After all she was overjoyed to have him back with her, though her joy was stifled by her hunger and tired mind. She had ushered Naruto to her place, a small house near the edge of the village. A quiet and cozy abode that they had basically shared for some time. After removing their shoes and coats, Sakura took to looking over Naruto, guiding him to the couch for a checkup.

The results had not been pretty. His arm was wrapped in a torn bit of sleeve, and the flesh itself resembled burnt meat with several bites taken out of it. She recognized the wound was probably from a Rasengan, a wound she had previously seen on numerous Zetsu corpses. She could tell he had used a healing jutsu on it, but he was still learning medical skills, so his patch job had done only a little to fix his wound. Kami only knew how this had happened to him, but Sakura had been content to wait for the full story when he was ready to tell her.  
So without a word she had applied her own more advanced healing technique to the arm. Little was accomplished with it, but she could tell by how Naruto's expression changed that it helped deaden the pain. Then she applied some hefty bandages to the forearm, thanking Kami that the gloves she made had held up to whatever happened to him. The arm would require a drastic treatment to heal fully, but she had stabilized it until they could see Tsunade.

With that deed done she had brought Naruto to the kitchen where some dinner courtesy of her own shadow clones was waiting, a delicious meal sure to nourish even the most famished of people. She was a medic after all, and her patients should be fed. Naruto ate of course, but slowly chomped down on his ramen despite the fact Sakura could tell he wasn't especially hungry.  
His mind wasn't especially invested in the food. When he didn't look at her Naruto just stared off into space. At the time Sakura had thought it was him shutting down, retreating into himself from the guilt of killing his former friend. It was like he wasn't aware of his surroundings.

Even when the two finally showered he was quiet and unresponsive, though he had removed his damaged clothes alright on his own. But he didn't seem to register the hot water running down his head and back despite the fact he had his fair share of dirt, concrete dust, dried blood, and built up grease from being gone for days without cleaning himself. Sakura had to wash his hair and even dry him he was so far gone. He just stood there in the hot water while she worked on him, and considering he was a bit taller than her it was an interesting task to reach his hair.

She didn't mind it though. Far from it. She had done far more arduous procedures and operations on more difficult patients or horribly wounded comrades, so drying her boyfriend wasn't an issue to her. She even faintly enjoyed being able to take care of her loving moron, whom was normally so insistent about taking care of her.

Of course, she still wanted to punch him to the moon and back for making her hysteric with worry.

But then again he was in a bad enough shape as it was without her making him go supersonic, and she really didn't want to have to explain to her neighbors and the repairmen how she had made yet another hole in her house by "accident." She was more than happy to help him however she could. Besides, just having him back in her arms took so much stress off her. Sometimes she just wanted to look after him even if he was a walking demigod, and now she could in her own small way. She could tell he sincerely appreciated it even if he didn't say it. The moment he spotted her walking towards him in the cemetery, a huge weight fell from his shoulders. She was more than happy to relieve him of it, to share it with the guy she loved.

That night she could watch over the blonde dope as he quietly curled up to her, resting his head in her embrace. Sakura was worried about his mind, but having him back in her arms made them both feel so much better. Every strong, steady heartbeat from Naruto was sweet music to her, proof that he was really alive and safe with her again. She could see he felt the same on hearing her own heartbeat next to him. He went to sleep with a faint, almost unnoticeable smile on his lips. For once, he looked peaceful as sleep overtook him. Soon he snored that adorable quiet snore of his, lulling Sakura to the land of dreams soon after.

Now, standing here in the cemetery, she could see the haze that clouded his vision was gone, he had regained his senses. Now he had that piercing gaze that terrified his enemies and inspired his friends. He was silent the whole morning, but now Sakura could see it wasn't out of shock, but his own type of mourning. He wouldn't cry tonight. Tears had long since passed, but he would still pay the dead their dues. He stood with a stern glare, staring unflinchingly at the pyre throughout the funeral proceedings.

Unsurprisingly, very few of the village people were actually attending.  
Most of the shinobi had arrived. The other members of the Konoha 11 were here, along with the village leaders and clan heads. Other than that, not a single villager was here. It wasn't hard to understand why though. Even after his death, there were people still afraid of Sasuke, and that didn't even include the people who hated his guts for betraying and trying to destroy the village. That hatred had died down somewhat when Tsunade disclosed the events surrounding the Uchiha Massacre. At least Sakura thought the hatred had died down. The reactions she had heard regarding the death of Sasuke were a mixture of relief that the "Last Uchiha" could menace them no longer, and quiet contempt for the person who had taken out his anger on the innocent. Looking around her now, Sakura could see that even amongst those who worked up the nerve to come, there were faint traces of anger and fear.

She could empathize with them, seeing the raw emotion in their eyes. They had all suffered a loss in the war and were anxious to move on with their lives. She could understand that. More than anything she wished she and Naruto could move on from the war.

She could tell Naruto could see it too. Despite focusing his gaze on the unlit pyre, he could definitely sense the negative emotions around him. There was no killer intent or outright hatred thankfully. Most of the people gathered were merely regretful that someone from the village strayed so far. But on the other hand, there were no tears, no quiet sobs or hushed goodbyes. Sakura could hear the occasional whispers of amazement at Naruto having defeated whom many people viewed as a physical god, but largely there was only a curt and reserved silence throughout the funeral.

Even as Tsunade gave a speech the attendees remained silent and motionless. Her words of making up for the mistakes of the past did not fall on deaf ears, but the small crowd was anxious to say goodbye, to finally move on with their lives from the terror of the war. Enough people had died to where almost every family in Konoha had lost a loved one, and focusing on the death of the last great enemy, who would have slaughtered countless more given the chance wasn't keeping up their spirits.

But if there was one thing that outweighed the fear of Sasuke or the desire to move on, it was the love and respect towards Naruto. All of his deeds in protection of the village had cemented him as a hero of Konoha, and he was friends or least acquainted with almost all of the shinobi in the village. They had all seen him rise and grow as a person and shinobi, and even those few who weren't fond of him respected his strength and dedication to the village.  
So even if they held no love of Sasuke, the shinobi at least owed it to Naruto to attend the funeral. Finally they could go about their lives without fearing the next war, something they would be eternally thankful for. Them and their children wouldn't have to be afraid anymore.

Yet at the same time they knew Naruto did not share, and probably never would share in their relief. Nobody needed to ask to see that Naruto took no joy in killing Sasuke. They all felt relieved, but everybody could tell how Naruto felt as he walked up to the pyre with Sakura.

Tsunade's eyes followed her adopted son and her brilliant protege, but she looked back on the crowd to finish the ceremony.

"With open hearts and forgiving minds, we send this soul into the next world. What peace he did not have in this life, may he find in the next. May his soul be cleansed of all misdeeds and trespasses from within and without. May he be welcomed with open arms by our ancestors, and may he be granted rebirth as one who will bring joy and prosperity to a new world. For even the blackest soul can be redeemed. For all life is precious, for every soul is treasured." Tsunade looked over at Sakura as she stood by Naruto at the pyre, so strong and fierce against her enemies and yet so gentle and loving with her friends and family. She nodded at her pupil, signaling her to begin the last stage of the funeral.

"We bid you farewell Sasuke Uchiha," she said. "May the Will of Fire light your way."

"May the Will of Fire light your way." the crowd echoed.

With torches lit by a puff of a fire breath jutsu, the two remaining original members of Team 7 set fire to the pyre. Naruto and Sakura walked in opposing directions around it, stroking the pile with their torches as they circled. Each left a small trail of tiny flames behind them, before coming back together in front of the crowd. Then they tossed the torches onto the very top of the pile, where Sasuke's body lay. With chakra mixed in the small torches quickly sparked a large flame. Starting from the base of the pyre, it quickly reached up higher and high, the pile crackled as the dry wood was heated and burned, growing dark and brittle in the rapidly growing blaze. A brilliant sight that many of those attending had to avert their eyes from.

The flames rose high into the bright amber sky, and cast a thick column of smoke skyward, obscuring the brilliant rays of the setting sun. The amber sky was darkened as the funeral pyre burned, obscured behind a faint oppressive cloud that would be the last mark Sasuke would leave on the world. Now Sasuke's body was concealed by the thick black smoke, soon to be consumed in the raging inferno. Naruto's gaze affixed to the now disappearing sight of the body. He watched, and waited as the fire grew and roared, held back only by the sizable rocks surrounding the pyre. For the entire crowd, seeing the funeral pyre drown in radiant flames was sombre sight, yet it was also strangely beautiful, cleansing the last Uchiha in its burning embrace. Naruto and Sakura stood at the side of the pyre, watching the fire without ever once averting their gaze.

But it was with weary and tired hearts did the others slowly start to leave. As the pyre continued to burn, the shinobi quietly excused themselves, walking with slow, relaxed footsteps. Some left with groups and others strolled out on their own, leaving the crowd smaller and smaller with each passing minute. Eventually it was just the Konoha 11, Kakashi, and the village leaders who remained. Naruto and Sakura stayed where they were, watching the funeral pyre from the side.

Soon the others left as well. Team Guy left firs. But Hinata joined them quickly along with the rest of team Kurenai.

After several minutes, Team Asuma left as well. Ino gave a curious glance to Sakura, but she gently turned and directed out of the cemetery by Shikamaru and Chouji.

Now only two of the eleven remained.

Eventually the village elders grew restless, silently insisting to the Hokage that they return to the days other affairs. Even with the death of Sasuke Uchiha, there was still much work to be done to repair the damage from the war. Tsunade acquiesced to their prodding, with no small amount of hesitation. Soon she two left, easing herself with the knowledge that at the very least, the war was now finally over, and her student and adoptive son were back together, safe.

Kakashi Hatake was the last to remain, looking at the fire as intensely as his students did. So far, he had lost his best friend, and a former student in the war. He had made peace with Obito in the Uchiha's final moments thankfully. Obito still held anger over Kakashi failing to, and in his mind outright killing Rin. But a sad discussion of the truth, namely that Madara had implanted a Tailed Beast in her and arranged events to lead to her death, the Obito buried the hatchet and even thanked Kakashi for looking after the next generation when he failed so spectacularly to live up their sensei's legacy. Their last words were of mutual appreciation and friendship, before Obito closed his eyes for the last time.

The memory was still a saddening one for Kakashi, but he could take comfort in the fact that Obito left the world in peace, and even redeemed himself somewhat. Sasuke's death did no such thing. This was something that, like Rin's death, only time could then again, Kakashi had time. They all did. Right now, all he wanted was some quiet time with a book.

Sakura glanced up at her sensei as he rose from his seat, stroking his hear back with that omnipresent sluggish look in his eyes. Sakura gave an appreciative smile, which he returned with a polite nod. He knew Sakura would be okay. But he was less certain about Naruto, and meaningfully darted his eyes between Sakura's own and Naruto's, which continued to look into the roaring fire. Sakura could see the concern in her sensei's eyes, and gave him a determined but assuring nod. Kakashi soon left, eased with the knowledge that the wars that he had fought in since he was a child were finally over.

Now he could sit back a bit and watch what this new generation would bring.

The fire had reached its peak as a raging inferno, blinding and even deafening. The sun had long since set behind the horizon, bathing the sky in inky, star-sprinkled night. The moon took its fiery brothers place, slowly rising up and bathing the village in faint yet radiant white light. A quiet chill set in, but it was warded off around the cemetery by the colossal blaze of a funeral pyre. At this point the pyre was completely shrouded by the flames, which distressingly enough showed no sign of stopping. Sakura was growing a little bit concerned with the way this was going. She readied her chakra.

"We should probably put it out right-"

"Wait for it."

Sakura's gaze slowly creaked to look at her boyfriend, disbelief filling her mind as she processed that he had just spoke for the first time since he had arrived. Her eyebrow arched in confusion, while Naruto again did something he hadn't done since before he went on his mission. He smirked. He responded to Sakura's confusion by nodding at the rocks surrounding the pyre.

The blaze crept ever closer to them, ready to easily bypass the now minuscule barrier. But just when it seemed like they'd have to act, Sakura felt several giant spikes of chakra burst from the boulders. Like a geyser, they released energy with a terrific blast, along with a freezing cold mist that Sakura recognized as Naruto's Winter's Breath jutsu, a technique that could freeze anything, even fire.

The booming flames were frozen in place, given solidity in the chakra-enhanced ice. In a single instant the bright hot pyre was icebound into a gigantic memorial glacier. The warmth and light were gone, snuffed out and yet preserved. The sight of it was equally beautiful to the raging inferno, yet far more tranquil. Looking at the icy flower-like construct, Sakura felt at ease, and no longer confused.

"You planted 'ice mines' on the boulders for when the fire grew too big. Once the heat breached a set temperature they would activate." she spoke with a faintly impressed tone. "Pretty clever." Sakura chuckled.

"Thank you." he responded with a faint grin, though it was still marred by the days events.

Sakura gently bumped him with her shoulder, making him finally tear himself away from the frozen pyre to look back at the woman he loved. As always, seeing her took his breath away. She wanted to hear from him, but more than that...

"No. Thank you." she said, giving him a smile. "You came back home just like you said you would. I'm happy you were able to keep your word. I knew you would of course," she quickly clarified. "but you cannot imagine how overjoyed I am to have you back home with me, safe and sound."

"It was a promise I was more than happy to keep for my little cherry blossom."

Sakura faintly blushed and let out a wry smile. "Moron." she joked "I can't even pretend to get annoyed with your sappy words."

"Or that you had to shower me when I was trapped in a stupor?" he chuckled, slightly ashamed.

"Well...I didn't mind that." she winked, and Naruto himself blushed.

"I'm sorry I was so out of it. No matter what it takes, I'll make it up-"

"I wouldn't mind helping out more either." she interrupted. "Let someone else take care of **you** for once."

Naruto pouted in a mock protest, and Sakura felt herself tempted to lightly slap his cheek. She sighed, instead raising her palm to his chin to look at him like she would a rascally child.

"I mean it. You've done so much for me, for everyone in the village that its ridiculous. Stop being so selfless and altruistic. After all this..." She briefly glanced to the frozen pyre, quickly bringing her gaze back to his piercing blue eyes. "Don't stretch yourself thin thinking of how I feel right now. I'm fine, really. I've accepted this. It's not a pleasant end but I've accepted that it's an end. Shut up and let me take care of you. I want to, and by Kami I will. You got that you baka?" She shook her index finger in his face for emphasis.

Naruto's pout quickly faded from his face, and he felt his brain turn to jelly in those eyes of hers. Even a powerful junchuuriki and hero of Konoha couldn't hold up under the commanding eyes of Sakura Haruno, so he sighed in painful defeat.

"Well, its a difficult compromise, but I'll let you take care of me if you want." Then he brought his strong arms around her and gently pulled her into his tight embrace. With a happy sigh, he rested his head against hers, taking in her heavenly scent. "Just know I'm never going to stop doting on you no matter what you say. Ever." He gripped her like a child would cling to a teddy bear. Feeling her strong yet slender frame in his arms, having her back with him alleviated so much of the weight from his shoulders. Sakura chuckled in his grip.

"I accept those terms." she responded, shifting her own arms to hug him back. She took in his presence, his strong heart beat, and felt her own heart beat slow as she rested her head on his shoulder. Even when in the cold night air and standing next to a small mountain of ice, when she was with him she didn't feel the least bit cold. It was a great feeling, having him back in her arms.

But then that horrible unease settled into her mind...

"Naruto..." she asked "How are you feeling right now?" The question was to be expected, but despite knowing it would come sooner or later, Naruto didn't have a solid answer for it.

"I don't know Sakura...I don't love myself for killing him of course."

He sighed, clenching Sakura tightly.

"But I don't hate myself for it either."

He had plunged his sword through Sasuke's chest. He didn't know how to take it.

"I did what I had to do...But at the same time..." Naruto hesitated, unable to find his words. "I'm sorry. I just don't know how to-"

"You worry that not feeling bad about taking another life makes you a bad person."

Sakura loosened her hold on Naruto to pull back and look in his eyes, snickering a bit.

"You're even more worried at how killing Sasuke only brings out this bitter confusion in you, and that only makes you even more worried that you're losing touch with yourself, becoming something less than human." Naruto stood dumbfounded, much to Sakura's amusement. "You accept that you had to kill your former friend, and the fact that you accepted that fills you with fear at becoming a killer, or a monster."

"Sound close?" Her head tilted with a sad half smile as she looked at him, and Naruto sighed.

"Pretty much...Yeah."  
He should have seen it coming. While he could sense other people's negative emotions with Kurama's power, Sakura could read his own mind like an open book all on her own. They were almost telepathic with each other now that he thought about it. She stroked his whisker-marked cheek with her soft, silky hand, something that always calmed his nerves.

"Well I know that you're not a monster Naruto. Want to know how I know that?"

Naruto responded with a faint nod, his gaze tilted to the ground

"Because you care so damn much, baka. You do everything you can to help someone in need, no matter the burden it puts on your shoulders." Sakura's smile faded a bit. "Even when what the person wants will only bring you pain." She shook her head slightly, casting off a memory from years ago, and looked at her boyfriend with a renewed show of appreciation and love in her eyes.

"You never stop trying to help others, and you care so much about the people around you. No killer or monster would do such a thing. You, Naruto Uzumaki are no monster. But then again that's only my opinion. I can't tell you what to think, only you can." To Naruto's horror, he saw the smile fade from Sakura's face, and she looked at him a troubled brow.

"Naruto, what do you think you are?"

Naruto could feel great worry radiating off her. She was worried whether he'd come away from this experience as a changed man or a broken mess of guilt and self-loathing, just like she expressed before he had left. He could practically taste fear in the air with his negative emotion sense, and it was a bitter pill to swallow. She was scared for him, unbelievably scared. Seeing her fill with worry, it made Naruto clench his fist, and he felt invigorated to wipe away that fear, made him determined to wipe away the doubt.

But try as he might, Naruto couldn't shake this heavy, cumbersome sensation in him. It was like there was something on him, some great weight that rested on his shoulders. The same feeling he had when he arrived at the hideout, but returned with a vengeance.

_"__He had done the right thing."_

_"__Sasuke deserved to die."_

_"__It was an act of mercy."_

It's oppressive mass just wouldn't leave him no matter what he thought. Any attempts to forgive himself or distract his mind failed utterly. The feeling was riveted to his conscience and refused to release its hold on him. His eyes looked to the side as he tried to rid himself of the burden, something to...The glint of the ice structure caught his eye.

He looked at the funeral pyre as a revelation came over him. Right now, his creation was a shining frozen monument in the ink-black night, almost like a star in its heavenly glow, a true work of art. But even chakra-enhanced ice would only last for so long in the daily heat. As time went on, the gorgeous sight would fade. Slowly but surely this monument would start to crack and drip clear water on the cemetery ground. It would fall apart, taking the frosty wood of the pyre with it to the ground. The ice would soak into the soil, simply disappear to leave only the black and crumpled remains of the logs. It was ice with so much history, conjured by the Nine-Tailed Fox and its famous jinchuuriki. This ice could paralyze entire lakes or pierce metal walls. A construct of true power.

Yet it would fade away, melting into nourishment for the soil.

Then the wood itself would rot. Day by day it would fall apart, hit by the heat of the sun and the cold kiss of winter. Perhaps bugs would gather around it, or maybe they would remain undisturbed for the rest of their days. Eventually these two would fade away, decomposing into the ground without leaving a trace that a funeral pyre was ever built here. Wood carved and chopped from trees that towered over the village, that had been chopped and sanded into countless shapes for the villages use. Weapons, furniture, homes. It formed the foundation for the village But these two would fade away, becoming one with the soil it had spawned from.

Sasuke's ashes too would waste away, if they hadn't been completely burned by the fire already. They would join the soil to become one with the earth. That's all that would remain of the Last Uchiha. Despite all he had done in his life, the good and the bad, he would simply fade. All these things; the ice, the wood, and Sasuke would fade away. Time would pass and life would go on, as it had since time began. No matter what happened, life would continue.

Naruto felt an odd comfort in that.

"You know...I thought I'd feel soul-crushing guilt for this." he began, still looking at the ice. "That I'd be torn apart by choosing to kill Sasuke. I didn't think I'd be able to live with myself, even after seeing all he had done, and knowing what he would have if I wasn't there to stop him." He turned his gaze to Sakura's, whom was listening to him like the words he spoke now were his last.

"There was a moment in the battle that I lost sight of why I was fighting, of what I wanted in coming to find him. I almost died because of the doubt I felt. I had chalked it up to Sasuke using his Sharingan to break my focus, but that was just a lie." He snickered. "If I was a monster, I would have killed him because it was fun, or because of anger. If I was a saint or a mindless drone I would have killed him because it was the moral thing to do. Something righteous for the sake of justice, that kind of bullshit." Naruto swept back his hair. "At first I tried to not think about. I was going to kill him because I had to, as my mission. I tried to see him as just a target. But I couldn't. He wasn't a target, he was a person. I just couldn't look past that, and I think it might have distracted me and prolonged the fight."

Naruto sighed, and Sakura could feel his fist start to clench. "Then at one point I got angry. He threatened to burn everything, to kill everyone here one by one if he defeated me. Maybe he got inside my head, maybe my imagination got the better of me, I'm not sure. I got so pissed off, so damned angry that I almost lost control, and would've gone full tailed beast if Kurama hadn't stopped me." Naruto chuckled. "I was this close to tearing down the entire complex to kill him. My arm was peeling its skin at that point, and I could feel that transformation coming. How weird is that? A tailed beast helping me focus and think logically." Naruto chuckled as the smoke rose above them both, a quiet laugh that faded quickly into his faint scowl. "I tried to take a professional attitude so I wouldn't have to think about killing him. Then I ended up using anger at him, for everything he's done and everything he might have done, but it almost turned me into something as bad as Madara."

After a long pause, Sakura spoke up.

"So if it wasn't for anger or justice that helped you win, how did you go through with it?" Sakura asked.

"Because I remembered a simple fact..." Naruto's hand rested on Sakura's cheek, softly stroking her skin. "I have a family." He looked out to the village, where life went on.

By now the street-lights were coming on. The shops and restaurants lit up and hummed with activity. The golden glow of the lamps bathed the entire village. And the silence of the night was broken as the sounds of life reached Sakura and Naruto ears. The cheers and songs of people feasting together. Children giggling and chasing each other through the streets. All this and more they could see and here from where they stood. In each others arms, the sights and sounds of the village were sweet sweet music. It made Naruto smile, looking at Sakura again while life continued around them.

"What drew me back into the fight, that allowed me to win and come back home, was knowing that I had a family. That I had people I would do anything for, to protect and make them happy. The people who made me what I am. The people that I will always be there for."

Sakura blushed again, staring unflinchingly into his eyes as a wave of intense emotions washed over her. Naruto felt the same rush of feelings in him as he felt enchanted by her emerald orbs that shined with the light of the stars.

"The people that mean the world to me." He started to lean in closer.

"Moron," Sakura whispered. "you sound so sappy right now."

"The people I happily sound sappy for if it made them smile."

"...Baka." She muttered. Sakura felt herself getting misty eyed, and her legs instinctively started to drift her closer to Naruto's slowly approaching face. The pure moonlight reflected off his eyes and illuminated his features, and Sakura felt herself getting lost in those shining orbs.

"Keep going." she giggled.

"The people that light up my world. The ones who let me wake up with a smile." He grinned. "The ones who make me the most loudmouthed bragger at lunch with the guys." Sakura stifled a tight laugh in her throat as Naruto continued to lean in closer to her.

"The people I want at my side for the rest of my days." Naruto's eyelids started to fall over his eyes, and Sakura felt her own gaze starting to darken. Their faces came within inches of each other, creeping closer and closer by the second. Naruto was feeling incredibly lucky with this goddess, his one and only cherry blossom juggernaut in his arms. He felt...Lighter than air.

"The people I treasure with every fiber of my being." He felt Sakura's deep breath on his lips.

"The people...The woman I love."

Sakura's lips crashed into Naruto's, and all the emotions he had ignored when she first strolled into the cemetery the night before suddenly exploded into the forefront of his mind. He felt so lucky to have her, to have the girl of his dreams kissing him with a fiery passion. In this world full of great and beautiful joys to see, she was definitely the best part of his life. The greatest gift he could ever receive. In the light of the full moon, in the beautiful night sky, Naruto and Sakura felt more alive than they ever had before.

Well, they still needed to breath, and they ended the kiss with no small amount of reluctance. They were both panting to regain oxygen, and Sakura smiled with slight embarrassment.

"Sorry..." she chuckled.

"Don't be. Long as I can breath afterwords, I'm perfectly fine with your mouth-tackles."

Sakura raised a disbelieving eyebrow at his choice of words. But his goofy and childlike grin quickly won her over, as it had so many times in the past. Whenever he sounded absolutely insane, one look from him would show he was just a giant sappy, loving goof.

Soon the two strolled out of the cemetery arm in arm. It was quiet out tonight, save for the songs of crickets in the nearby grass. It was a chilly night, but it was greatly assuaged by their shared warmth. Plus, Sakura barely noticed it as she looked at her paradox of a boyfriend.  
At times he would show how eerily perceptive and intelligent he was, while at others he would cover it up with his fun-loving antics just to make her smile. It was exasperating how easily he could switch between the two. But he would always show that no matter how he acted, his devotion to her was always a constant. Genius tactician or hopelessly lost dullard, what was always present was an unconditional, undying love for Sakura Haruno, the girl of his dreams and light of his world.

She sighed her adoring disbelief at falling in love with a guy who could be an absolute genius one moment and an adorable simpleton the next. Right now he was clearly embracing his inner child with his odd vocabulary and the high-pitched suppressed giggling that always made him look ridiculous.

Sakura kissed him again to get him to stop giggling, quietly laughing in her own mind at his vocabulary. It worked. Very well in fact. Naruto smiled, loving her tactics of shutting him up.

Breaking the kiss, Sakura patted his cheek with a smile. Now they could relax a bit, a feast.

"Now come on. You must be hungry and dying to cook something..." she sang. But surprisingly, Naruto looked uncertain, even a bit nervous as she made her declaration.

"What?" she asked. In response Naruto popped an impossibly sheepish grin.

"Could we eat at Ichiraku's tonight?"

Sakura sighed, pulling a very annoyed expression on Nartuo as she gently rubbed her chin in deep thought. Of course he'd want to eat ramen tonight. But this was an interesting opportunity she had. She could just outright say she was so happy to have him back that she'd let Naruto eat at Ichiraku's for the next three months if he wanted to. Or she could tease him a bit...It was certainly tempting beyond compare. But before Sakura could seriously consider the pros and cons of messing with her boyfriend, two enormous sky-blue orbs slowly drifted into view. They were wide, massive, all-encompassing, and absolutely, unbearably adorable.

"Please?" pleaded Naruto as his eyes watered, threatening to burst at any moment.

_"__Crap." _she thought.

She couldn't hold up under those adorable eyes.

Before Naruto truly broke down, Sakura snapped her arms around him in an instant. He found himself held in an iron-clad grip that compressed him to no small degree due to Sakura's terrifying strength. Naruto couldn't move in her unbreakable lock, but while a lesser man would yelp in surprise, he just grinned his no-longer foxy grin. His eyes open, he managed to shift his arms around her again, relaxing into her bear-hug, while Sakura herself just faintly smiled as her eyes started watering.

"Moron...I love you Naruto. More than anything in the world." She said. Naruto couldn't help but feel himself watering up, and his heart risked exploding from the love he held for her.

"I love you too Sakura." Naruto whispered with an explosive passion.

"I love you even more than ramen."

Then suddenly, his own lips met Sakura's in a dance of unbelievably intense passion. Sakura was dumbfounded by him "mouth-tackling" her, and when it was over she found herself in a heavily dizzy state. She had been wonderfully caught off guard and left in a love-drunk state, unable to even coordinate her limbs so that she swayed in front of him with a small goofy grin.

"That...W-was so..." She couldn't even properly conduct her lips, which felt like they had been knocked out under Naruto's fiery kiss. Her entire body seemed to be falling asleep, so she barely reacted when she felt her knees buckle underneath her.. She would have fallen to the ground, if Naruto hadn't quickly swept her off her feet and tucked securely into his arms.

"That was...Wow..." She rested her head on his shoulder with a dazed look in her eyes. "Do you mean that Naruto? Do you actually love me more than ramen?" She barely managed to focus her words, and Naruto grinned.

"I love you more than all the ramen in all the world Sakura." She almost didn't believe him.

"Oh you moron..." she grinned, nuzzling his neck with barely held-back tears of giggling joy.

This was perfect.

"Come on." she chuckled. "Let's go eat some some-WAAAAAH!" Sakura found herself being pushed up against Naruto's body by a sudden blast of wind.

"WOOOOOO!" Without a second thought Naruto had surged wind chakra through his body, blasting straight up out of the cemetery and scattering dust and dirt in his takeoff as he howled like a mad wolf. His long black coat thrashed around from the speed he had achieved in a mere second of acceleration. In the face of the wind, Sakura clung tight to her impromptu transportation while feeling at ease in his arms even as they soared up into the sky, climbing higher and higher as an orange and pink missile. While startled at first, she was far from scared.

"WEEEEEEE!"

No, she was whooping it up with the blonde loving moron as the world opened up to them. Naruto and Sakura flew into the night air with a clear view of the illuminated village full of life and hope, slowing to a steady vertical crawl. Naruto took a smooth arc through the air, rotating himself to make a gentle turn to head straight to Ichiraku's. With the light of the village below them, and the glow from the moon and stars shining down on the two of them, Naruto and Sakura silently thanked whatever divine being existed that they were here, with the one they loved and able to celebrate their lives. Tonight was a night for remembrance, and happiness.

Mistakes had been made in the past, ones that had shaped the shinobi world into the form it now took. Naruto and Sakura would never forget their fallen teammate. But Naruto realized they couldn't live in fear because of the past. He had fought to let the villagers live without being scared of the next day. Now it was time for him to start living, in the village he called home and with the woman he loved. He still had goals to reach after all.

Becoming Hokage for one, but more than a few on top of that. Becoming a jonin with his own students. Helping clean up the mess Akatsuki, Orochimaru, and Danzo had made. Asking Sakura the big question, maybe waking up to the pitter-patter of tiny feet in their home.

The war was over. Peace was here to stay, and the jinchuuriki and medic-nin were ready and eager to continue their lives in the home they knew and with the one they loved. Tonight was the night when they would all start moving forward.

Sakura and Naruto shared a happy look, as the thought crossed both their minds.

"What do you think will happen now? The war's over, Akatsuki and Sasuke are gone. What's going to happen now?"

"I don't know really...I guess that's what makes it fun."

"Yeah. I know I'm looking forward to sharing it all with a loving blonde moron."

"I can't wait to wake up next to my cherry blossom juggernaut."

"Oh stop." She jabbed his cheek.

They both looked down on the village with all the people living out their lives, looking forward to the next day. A new chance, a new start, a new opportunity to learn and grow. Naruto felt himself smile, as his gaze looked out on all he loved, and he looked at Sakura. He wanted to keep on going.

"Tomorrow is a new day Sakura. Let's make sure it's a good one."

It was something they could happily agree on.

* * *

It was amazing how much could change in the world of shinobi.

How nations would grow and recede.

How alliances and friendships were built.

How one generation would create the next.

And especially how much the world could change between those generations.

One would know only endless violent conflict peppered by tense truces and light skirmishes, and the next would bask in a peace not seen since the dawn of man. The shinobi world of today would hardly be recognized by past generations. The fate of a village or nation could turn around practically overnight, and those twists of fate applied to the entire world. In the course of a single war lasting two days the entire world's fate was changed.

The "Last Great Shinobi War" was an event that now lived in infamy for the schemes of the Akatsuki, the return of Madara, and the resulting conflict. In the span of two days the Five Great Shinobi Nations had suffered tremendous casualties, against the Zetsu horde and resurrected shinobi. The horror of Madara's near-victory and of the Ten Tails existence would still strike a nervous chord with many people even after seventeen years.

But while the losses in the conflict would never be forgotten, the war was also remembered as a turning point for the shinobi world. It sparked a transition when many of the old rivalries of the past collapsed as the nations saw the benefit in sharing their intelligence agencies, their armies, and eventually their power. The end of the war brought the end of an era, but the birth of a new one one unlike any seen before.

From the ashes of the Fourth Great Shinobi War was born the Allied Shinobi Nations.

Now there was peace between the Great Nations. Children would no longer fight to the death because of rivalries and the petty whims of Daimyo's, whom were removed from power entirely. Now the greatest Shinobi Nations combined their strength for joint projects like agriculture or scientific research. The damage from the war was still felt to this day, but it was being surpassed by the progress being made by the alliance. Which was good, because the leaders of this alliance most definitely had their work cut out for them.

While the war had ended with victory, that did not mean that all traces of Akatsuki, Orochimaru, and even Danzo's forces and experiments were gone. There were pockets of them all over the world, as well as the occasional wannabe group seeking to imitate Akatsuki's plans and uniforms. Orochimaru still had experiments and labs being run by individual cells or simply automated, and Danzo's organization of Root had grown its way into many areas of the Great Nations to control weapons production, medicine, and economies for their own benefit and eventual resurgence.  
Even with Madara and the Ten Tails gone, there were still threats out in the world. Thus one of the first acts of the Allied Nations was to establish an inter-nation task force comprised of the best of the best from the Great and the lesser nations. This group would act as the sword and shield of the new world until these threats were purged.

And so was founded Dōmei Kage, the Allied Shadows.

Focusing on investigations and offensive operations, this group was charged with removing the dark influences and projects left behind by the three organizations, documenting all that they found for further research, and exposing said secrets to the world. Some projects were quite gruesome to reveal, but one of the pillars of the Allied Nations was moving on from the dangers and mistakes of the past for the sake of a fresh start, so revealing what was done in the name of world conquest or Danzo's "greater good" was vital. The work of Domei Kage revealed the ugly side of the past for the sake of a new, better tomorrow.

Many notable shinobi from Konoha were recruited into the Domei Kage such as Kakashi Hatake, who was elected as the first head of the organization, only below the Kages themselves in terms of power and influence. He reported directly to the Kage Council in coordinating efforts to weed out corruption, and under his leadership the Domei Kage saw many successful missions. Under his watch, it grew from a fledgling black ops cell into a globally recognized and respected league of powerful shinobi working for the world's benefit. For many years he worked as the leader of Domei Kage, before he eventually was called to join the ranks of the Kage. Others like Naruto Uzumaki, Sai, Killer Bee, Temari, Darui, Chojuro, and Kurotsuchi were recruited or volunteered to join the organization, acting as field agents and investigators.

But combat and stealth operations were not the only focuses of the Allied Nations. The Domei Kage were just one of three groups that would cleans the mistakes of the old world to usher in the new.

There was the Dōmei Hikari, the Allied Light. They were formed as one international group that would share medicine and healing techniques freely between the nations. It was a shared medical network that were known for peerless treatment and education of shinobi who wished to be field medics, as well as doctors themselves. They took many from all of the Great Nations as well as the lesser ones. Renowned healers and medic-nin such as Sakura Haruno, Ino Yamanaka, Shizune, and Tsunade herself. For a time the former Hokage served as the head of Raito in a welcome change of pace from her Kage duties. She ran it much like a combination hospital and library, sharing resources amongst the facilities while also welcoming new talent in the Raito's numerous branches. Eventually she retired after many years of leadership to be replaced by a three-person council. With the Raito's formation, the average life expectancy went up by twenty to thirty years. Simple remedies helped to prevent common diseases as well as many more dire medical conditions. No nation would suffer plagues under the Raito's watch.

Lastly there was the Dōmei Kokoro, the Allied Minds. This was an inter-nation information pool with records of all known shinobi history. The shared knowledge made it far less difficult for nations to find records of past battles and educate the populace on their history. They were also tasked with guarding dangerous jutsus and clan secrets, which were only viewable by the Kage Council and the head of the respective clan or group. But they did not lock all information away, far from it.  
Another pillar of the Allied Nations was to spread knowledge among the people of their world, especially knowledge of history so that there would be no conspiracies or misinterpretations of past conflicts. Events were recorded meticulously to keep accuracy. Misinformation could only spread worry, paranoia, and division, three things the nations did not need. To that end they made accessing information much simpler than before. The Kokoro had taken up the duty of linking the libraries of the world, and established swift trading and copying of those books so that any civilian could access stories from across the world. Much of Konoha's former Root and other now unneeded spy organizations were restructured as guards for the great libraries and shipments of knowledge from culture to culture.

The three organizations accepted recruits from all the nations of the shinobi world, welcoming all into their fold with the appropriate skills, and even those who just showed great potential. They all had bases in the great nations, but were most focused within newly established shared territories.

That was another thing that grandparents of today were gawking at. If the idea had been proposed but a few decades ago, the person suggesting it would've been laughed out of their village. Now the idea was as common as the Ichiraku restaurants in the Five Great Nations.

Since the war, several areas had been established as meeting grounds between various nations. Initially these were large forts where shinobi forces from nations could share information and coordinate operations. But with the Domei Kage's formation these forts fell out of practice, until the idea came to set up trading posts in these forts for merchants. Then people started building houses, and these towns were soon expanded upon by the Great Nations to be the shared territories, where trade could occur and connections formed between the peoples of the world. Production contracts were formed between companies, medical knowledge was shared freely with the Domei Raito's help, and a newly established jutsu trade was established yet was watched carefully with recorded transactions to prevent techniques from falling into malicious hands. These territories served their purpose well in bringing together others and strengthening the bonds between nations.  
There were now several large villages where the nations would intersect, even using these villages to govern their nations together.

There was Arashi Mura, the Tempest Village, where the Water and Lightning nations would meet. The two nations combined much of their technology here, creating amazing boons to the nations like H.A.T's or P.C.D's, which were "Hand-held Audible Telegraphs," and "Personal Computation Devices" respectively.

There was Sukai Iwamura, the Sky Rock Village where the nations of Earth and Wind established their rock-hard friendship. Here may musical instruments were crafted as a consequence of the Wind Nation extending aid to the new Land of Sound. The two nations also combined air cutting jutsu with traditional stonecraft and carpentry, allowing for faster and higher quality production of goods.

But there was one village that surpassed them all, located on the northern edge of the Fire Nations border, in the center of the shinobi world. It stood as the meeting ground between all the shinobi nations, where representatives would gather in coordinating the shared forces and help settle disputes between lesser nations that had not joined the Alliance. The Kages would venture here for their councils and help shape the path of the new world.  
This village, this growing metropolis stood as the economic center of the Shinobi nations, where the greatest advances in technology were made or were sold, where the next day would bring change to the world, taking it forward into a brighter tomorrow under the watchful eye of the Kages.

Sekai Jūjiro, the crossroads of the world. A bustling hub of activity and progression. Here there were schools, ninja academies, and of course many shops with tools, foods and fashion accessories. One could find the finest delicacies and trinkets from all over the shinobi world, and today was an especially lively day free of diplomatic endeavors. Without any committee meetings or councils scheduled, the village was a veritable festival of cultures coming together under the banner of the Allied Shinobi Nations. Without any serious work to do on the weekend, most people could relax and sample the world-class ramen of Ichiraku's at one of its many restaurants. Others could purchase the fine sculptures and figurines hand-crafted in the Land of Earth or the jewels and pearls from the Land of Water. In a place filled with so many opportunities, today was a day when anything could happen.

Of course, there's always a downside with having infinite possibilities, and that is the potential for trouble.

* * *

Most people were happy to enjoy a festive day such as this. The sun was shining, the shops and restaurants were packed, and there were even some street performers entertaining the crowds.

But there were always those who just wanted to cause trouble. Even in a prosperous village like Sekai Jūjiro, there was bound to be a fair share of bad apples in the mix. The gathering of cultures brought so many people together, and it also attracted a few opportunists seeking a not strictly legal profit from the citizens, or bands of thugs trying to carve out a name for themselves in this new village.

While the people happily mingled with each other, everyone parted when they saw a band of thugs lumbering their way through the village streets. Their heavy footsteps and big, muscly builds intimidated and warded off any who might stand in their path. Many a traveler was unfamiliar with this localized group of muscle-heads, whom they watched with careful eyes from the restaurants and a nearby bar.

"Hey barkeep, can you answer a question for me?" one customer asked.

"Huh? Yeah sure what is it?"

"Could you tell me who are those guys, the big dumb-looking ones walking right there?"

"Keep your voice down you idiot!"

"What? Why?"

"Because if you enjoy walking then you'll shut up. Those are the Red Dragons."

"...I'm sorry, the what?"

The Red Dragons, as they called themselves. What they lacked in creativity, and possibly cumulative IQ, they made up for in sheer ferocity and brute force. A gang of thirty six muscle-heads and scoundrels who made things very unpleasant for whomever they came across. A few times they had been spotted roaming the streets of the village like a pack of wolves hungry for a fresh kill.

As cultures came together under the banner of the Allied Shinobi Nations, so too did the outcasts of those cultures mingle in shared territories, gravitating to the like-minded brutes of the other nations. In this great village, the outcasts had started to form their own group. A gang that while found wanting in terms of mental faculties, were all former or flunked shinobi. While they could only be a nuisance to most on their own, as a group they held strength in numbers and posed a serious threat.

Most of the time they stayed in their territory, just south of the village in some abandoned houses of an old village that had been evacuated back in the war and were never reclaimed. But every so often they would lumber back, seeking to "purchase" goods they required and collecting completely legal payments from those too weak to fight back.

At the head of these thugs stood their leader Naoto, and his twin brother and second-in-command Tadao. Today their target was a jewelry store they had visited a few times before.

"Good morning old man Yama!" Naoto leered. With his considerable height he would have to look down at most people, as he no doubt enjoyed. "I hope the visit my boys payed last week wasn't unwelcome?" Naoto leered at the chef.

"No no, nothing of the sort. Very nice boys. They were quiet nice." the shopkeeper sputtered back.

"Thank you very much old man. We appreciated your donation!" The entire gang erupted into laughter at seeing Naoto harass the owner, one of their many targets in keeping their coffers and bellies full. While Naoto made his men laugh as if to convince people that nothing suspicious was happening here, Tadao eyed the shopkeeper meaningfully, reminding him of their business arrangement as he innocently fingered a sizable knife in his belt.

Naoto was the charismatic muscle of the group, the one who could force the other guys in line using either his bravado or his monstrous strength, which was backed up by his considerable skill with earth jutsu. His hair was black at the roots, but dyed almost entirely a bright blonde, resulting in the villagers nicknaming him the "Yellow Demon." As a testament to his power, he had only been beaten twice in his entire life, and asking about those defeats would earn someone more than just a few bruises.

Tadao on the other hand was the calm and scheming planner, the one who handled their operations with surprisingly ruthless precision. He was the one who actually directed their efforts and in part made them so feared. With his strategic planning experience as a former chunin, Tadao could plan effective traps for whoever didn't pay the protection fee, and his skill with a knife was something to be feared indeed. It was a mark of pride for him that only one opponent had ever bested him in close quarters, and he hoped to one day find that cruel woman and teach her a few lessons with his knife. But for now he and the gang were content to go about their business; being insufferable.

Today was just one of those days when the Red Dragons would stroll through, making themselves known and laughing at whomever cowered when they came by. Normally someone would call the Domei Kage on them, ushering them away before they caused any real damage. But for a group of thirty, they could be remarkable hard to keep track of, having worked their way through the streets almost unnoticed. On this off day, when there was no real enforcement, these people were largely left to fend for themselves under the leering eyes of the Red Dragons. It would only be a matter of time before someone got fed up and set off the powderkeg that was slowly building in the village.

But of course, not everyone was affected by the Red Dragons. Most didn't even know they existed. Travelers to the village were largely ignorant of the band of thugs roaming around. Most came, saw the sights, purchased some goods, then left. As one of the great tourist hot spots, people from all over the world ventured here, especially those from the Land of Fire, whom were the most frequent visitors, and many had set up shop and built homes in Sekai Jujiro.

Indeed one might see farmers, bankers, or blacksmiths perusing the fine gifts of the village. It was a place where any sort of people could be found.

Of course there were always the families that came, looking for sometimes the most mundane of accessories...

* * *

"Say what you will about the Village of Mist, but they know how to make a scarf."

"They do?"

"Oh yes they do. Just look at these."

"Oh. My. God. They do!"

"Right? I don't even know how to knit and I can tell this is fine work."

"They're amazing! These are so soft! Can we get, like three of these, please?"

"You bet."

"Eeeeeee this is beautiful! The girls are going to be so jealous when I bring these back home!"

"Well, just don't rub in their faces too much."

"Why not? Are you robbing me of my husband-bragging rights?"

"Nooo. I like the bragging. But when your girlfriends get jealous, the guys start to uh. . . Voice a few grievances with me for making them look bad."

"Really? I didn't think it was that bad."

"Well I do enjoy the fact that I'm amazing, believe me. Brag, please do, but maybe tone it back a little around your girlfriends? I keep getting lines of husbands outside my office and it gets very awkward."

"Oh fine I'll only brag a little bit."

"Phew, that'll make my hours a lot easier."

"Oh hush, you know you love getting fancy things for me, especially when I brag about you."

"Well, I wont lie, that scarf would look amazing on you."

"Yes it would."

"Let's get four! Give you more options."

"Ooh lets!"

"One for winter, one for spring, whatever works!"

"That...Would be...Great..."

"I mean who wouldn't be jealous of a beauty in a scarf like this!"

"Mhmmm..."

"In fact, Grab six if you want dear!"

"...Alright, What's the catch."

"Huh?"

"You want something from here, and you're trying to convince me to let it slide, offsetting it by buying me something so exquisite that I'd have no choice but to let you get...Whatever item it is you want this time..That's your plan, isn't it."

"...Well, you would look amazing in those scarves..."

"Thank you, sincerely. But come on, what it is it? I won't make fun of you."

"...Shades."

"I'm sorry what? Did you just say that you wanted to get sunglasses?"

"...Well yeah."

"Why, exactly? We have plenty back home. You're wearing some right now."

"Well yes, but they don't compare to some of the ones on sale here. I mean, look at these shades from the Lightning Nation for example. They're awesome!"

"Aren't those the same kind that...Killer Bee wears?"

"Hell yes they are! Here, how do I look in them? Pretty sweet right? Like a real cool shinobi."

"I mean...Well they're..."

"What? Are they too big?"

"No, it's just that...Well...Sweetie, please don't get those."

"Why not?"

"You look a bit...Foolish in them. Why not that other pair?"

"You don't think I can pull off the look."

"It's not that, its just-"

"Dang it."

"Sweetie, it's okay. Nobody could pull off that look unless they **were** Killer Bee."

"How do you mean?"

"It's just that he's. . . Special I guess, so he can pull off his rapper thing, or whatever it is he's pulling. I don't know."

"Hmm. . .So it's just something he pulls off."

"Exactly. It's not you, its him. So why not go for your own look, your own style?"

"Hmm. . . You know what? Maybe I'll try those aviators. Ooh I like these! What do you think? Good?"

"Baka, yes. Those look good on you. I knew you had better tastes."

"I've got a good partner helping me refine those tastes."

"Well you need someone to help you out. And it might as well be me. It is my burden as your better half after all. It's not always easy but I manage."

"Ha ha ha very funny. But, thanks. For putting it gently."

"Of course, just promise me you'll stop trying to do that thing Killer Bee does. That rhyming thing. What is it called?"

"Think it was called rap. And I haven't done that in years."

"Mhm."

"Shut up."

"You know I'm right."

"Never."

"It's alright, you don't have to admit it to me. Seriously though those look good on you. To be honest I'm getting a Kakashi-sensei feeling from you."

"Really? Awesome! Thank you!"

"Of course. I want my loving husband to feel like the great strong and brave man that he is."

"I am strong, and I am brave. I'm awesome aren't I?"

"Yes you are, very much so. A paragon of virtue in the shinobi world, one against whom all other men are measured, and every single one of them is found horribly wanting in comparison to your unmatched might, and all-loving heart."

"That was beautiful dear...You really want those scarves don't you?"

"Well yeah, I mean look at them! They're amazing! Besides if anyone would know good quaity scarves it's you. Normally I get Hinata's input on these kind of things, but with that knitting club you two are running you've really gotten to know scarves."

"Well I know a few things I suppose. I keep saying you're welcome to join us."

"I know, and I appreciate it. But you try teaching a class of shinobi with two kids five days a week, or teaching hospital interns. Mr. Hokage doesn't-have-to-teach-interns-where-a-needle-goes."

"Fair. Maybe we should swap jobs for a week. You handle Shikamaru and the paperwork while I handle teaching kids."

"I'm sure that would go over well with the other Kages."

"Oh definitely. No problem. I helped save the world, I figure it gives me a free pass."

"Seems reasonable. Oh wait, shhh. Quiet. One sec. . ."

"Uh oh. We didn't wake them did we?"

"Shh. Hmm hmm hmm hmmmm. Ah, they're still asleep."

"Humming that tune always knocks Takara out cold. I love how you can do that."

"Well a mother can do these things. Oh? Can you hear that?"

"Is that. . . Is Shinachiku snoring?"

"He is! Oh I knew he had your lungs!"

"Well he's got my hair, I guess lungs aren't too much of a stretch."

"They're so cute. . . Don't you love this? Having kids I mean."

"Well, it can be difficult beyond belief sometimes, but yes. I couldn't be happier."

"Really?"

"Yep. Now come on, let's grab those scarves."

"Hell yes! Oh crap. . . No, still asleep. Keep dreaming you two. Right, let's get these five here. Ooh, you know who would love this green one?"

"Hana. Of course."

"She would look adorable with dark green! That would really compliment her dress. But then again, the sky blue would make her eyes pop. Not to mention her hair stand out just perfectly."

"Just like her mother's."

"Awww. Ugh, stop being such a sweetheart you baka."

"Can't and won't. Get both for her if you want, we're here to relax. I want to treat the family."

"If you say so. Okay so that's two for her, and - Ah yes! We need to get Ryuu something too!"

"Yes, we do! Hmm. Ooh, he'd love these gloves! They're perfect for him to train with!"

"Are you sure those are the right size?"

"They are, I'm sure. They are also extra padded in case you're wondering. Just to be safe let's get him a second pair. You know how training can be."

"Ha ha I do, I do. That should be good. Alright, seven scarves, two pairs of gloves, and some shades. Anything else dear?"

"Nope. All good to go. We should get moving actually or Ryuu and Hana will get bored."

"Right yes, let's move. Awww when they see these, those two will just. . . Um, dear?"

"Yes?"

"Where exactly are Ryuu and Hana?"

". . . Ah crap."

* * *

On the opposite end of the village, trouble was already brewing. The tension in a small restaurant mounted with every passing second, as thirty six furious pairs of eyes glared at a single defiant shop owner.

"What the hell do you mean you're charging me!?" Naoto shouted.

"If you want to eat here, you need to pay for your food. Sir."

In the midst of their arrogant strutting down the main street, the Red Dragons took notice of one of the Ichiraku's restaurants. A place of welcoming air, where people of all walks of life could eat together. Unfortunately this extended to the nearby gang. They were quite eager to taste this fabled Ichiraku's, and when the Red Dragons came in offering their "business," one didn't refuse them unless they found themselves making a surprise donation at the behest of the Red Dragons charity collection services.

But one chef had chosen to take a stand, to not put up with complete bullies. Nobody would tase the sweet sweet delicacy of Ichiraku ramen without due payment, by god! Naturally, the entirety of the Red Dragons had taken exception to this.

"I don't think you understand who I am! I'm Naoto, head of the Red Dragons."

"I know exactly who you are sir, but your title does not grant you free service." The chef would not budge no matter how much any idiot would push him, which was only going to make things worse. By now a large crowd had gathered outside the shop, some were curious, other frightened to see what Naoto would do to someone who defied him. As it was right now, it looked like anything could happen. Tadao certainly seemed to take to the crowd, pointing at the defiant cook with a sneer.

"This man refuses to give our leader a free meal, even when Naoto, in an act of selfless courage and righteousness, shed blood to protect all of you from the dangers we faced so many years ago!"

The crowd looked amongst themselves, greatly confused by his words. Tadao took this as an invitation to keep talking while Naoto kept getting more and more into the chef's face.

"You see here old man, I fought in the Last Shinobi War!"

The crowd fell silent. So few had survived that war, nobody could confirm or deny whether Naoto was actually at the war. People had mostly been focused on rebuilding, and still reeling from the war itself, that there had been some errors in accounting for casualties. Tadao grinned at their confusion, because now he had their attention. This was almost too easy.

"Yes, you heard it people! My brother fought for your freedom, your very lives against the tyranny of Madara and Obito Uchiha, the menace of the Ten-Tails, and the terror of The Last Uchiha."

Tadao whipped around to point at the chef and his brother, shouting in pure rage and disbelief. "But this old fart spits in the face of what this hero witnessed, he mocks all the deaths and atrocities committed in that calamity by charging a war hero, when he should, when you all should be bowing down to this shinobi, this great hero in gratitude!"

"You're not even close to a shinobi, ya big fat fraud!"

Tadao's gaze turned cold, lifeless. His eyes scanned the crowd, all of whom were now rapidly realizing that this loudmouthed man was a far bigger threat than initially expected. They came looking at a disturbance, and found themselves face to face with a killer, a madman.

"Who the hell said that." he hissed.

"A real shinobi never uses foul language either!" The same voice bellowed, this time from a different direction, and far angrier this time too.

Tadao guessed this little pipsqueak was either moving very fast, or...

"Leave these people alone!"

"Go cry to mommy you bully!"

"Nobody ever steals ramen!"

Suddenly the same voice was coming from several places at once, at least six locations.

"You're an insult to shinobi!"

"Dad's going to beat you up so bad!"

"Pick on someone your own size jerk!"

"You smell!"

The crowd was just as confused as Tadao, for whenever they would turn to see who had spoken, they would hear that same voice from a completely different spot. It was just one person, it had to be, but it was like the same person had split into several more. This had turned from a peaceful morning in the market to a potentially disastrous powder-keg. This person was insulting no less than thirty grown men, the entirety of the Red Dragons were now focused on the crowd, with Tadao at the head with sizable knife in his pocket. Naoto was still focused on the chef and didn't seem to notice, but his brother was far more enraged. Some brazen fool was insulting them, him!

This would not stand.

"Whoever dares insult us, the Red Dragons, do you think yourself above us!" He shouted.

"Everyone here is miles above you!" the voice responded from deep in the crowd, loud and rather high-pitched.

"A cockroach would be above you, you fake!"

"You're not even close to being a shinobi ya know!"

Closer this time, to the left. Tadao's gaze darted to see only more of the confused townsfolk, some of who were barely suppressing their laughter, which only pissed off the Red Dragons. Several of the group stepped forward at the crowd. They wanted to bash some heads, and today was the day the would teach these people who were the real top dogs. One brute sporting a particularly distasteful mohawk moved to start beating obedience into these people, but Tadao raised his hand, signaling the gang to stay back.

Tadao stepped forward, hand resting meaningfully on his knife handle as he surveyed the crowd. Most of them quietly looked away, avoiding his gaze out of either fear or disgust. Whoever was insulting them definitely wasn't scared, or at least very foolish. He couldn't see that person, so there was only one option to instill some fear into these people and gain power.

"Whoever claims to be a true shinobi, step forward."

A single man asked before he was hushed by his friends. "Why? So you can bully another person to compensate for your small d-" His friends then pulled him away while covering his mouth.

Tadao grinned, and looked back at his brother who was now grabbing the defiant chef by his collar. Naoto was more than ready to crush the loudmouth cook, but he looked back at his brother. Tadao pointed at the chef with a maniacal grin on his lips. Naoto took a moment to understand, but grinned in return as he realized his brother's meaning, to have some fun with their would-be taunter.

Naoto's giant hands wrapped around the chef's shoulders, and with incredible strength he threw the man like a bail of hay through the air. Pots and pans were scattered onto the ground as the chef left his kitchen and crashed into the street with painful impact, rolling along the dusty ground to arrive at the feet of the very pleased and eager Tadao. He drew his knife, a long serrated blade whiter than pure ebony, forged of some unknown metal from the Land of Iron, the samurai country. A blade with very few equals that now thirsted for blood, and it would very soon find it at the chef's throat. Tadao elegantly twirled it in his hand as he looked out at the crowd, who were quickly realizing his terms.

"Because if they don't present themselves, this tub of lard will be staining the street."

The crowd fell silent. This wasn't anything they had expected. Murder wasn't in the Red Dragons wheelhouse, or was it? They had never killed anyone, if they did then the officials would surely route them out of the territory. Killing someone would only bring the wrath of countless shinobi upon them for taking a life in shared territory. But Tadao and Naoto's eyes, indeed the whole collection of sadistic orbs residing in the heads of the gang said otherwise.

"A true shinobi would not let a threat like that go unchallenged," Tadao snickered. "Unless they were a spineless coward willing to let someone die. So tell me, who would step forward to back their claim, to see which one of us is a real shinobi?"

"Me!"

Small, tiny footsteps tapped the ground, each one sounding closer and closer to the front of the crowd. The townspeople almost didn't part when a small figure made its way to the front of the gathering. Adults looked around them for the mysterious person only to feel their legs being bumped aside as a tiny purple shape rushed through the gathering, arriving at the front with a sudden scattering of dust. Like a purple lightning-bolt the figure had just appeared with amazing speed, and had charged forward so quickly that it briefly caught the Red Dragons off guard, and startled Tadao in particular. The initial shock only grew when all eyes turned to see who was so foolish or brave to insult and confront a gang of thirty six grown men.

A little girl.

A silence fell all over the area.

None of the villagers had seen this coming. Normally children would be running to their mothers sides for safety at a time like this, or they would watch from afar with wide eyes and mouths agape when a fight broke out. Their last instinct would be to charge so brazenly into the jaws of death.

But not this little girl. She stood fearless, and very angry.

The girl stood in a dull red dress patterned with with pink flowers along the elbow-length sleeves and its base, which was just between the girls knees and feet. Her tiny blue sandals twinkled in the bright sunlight, as did her brilliant blue eyes which shined like pure polished sapphires. On her wrist she wore a bracelet of sky blue beads. Some of them bore letters but nobody could discern what they were.  
She had dull pink, almost purple hair that flowed down to her shoulders like silk, and her head was adorned with a giant bright red bow, tied to perfection with some unknown but expert hands. The oddest physical feature about her were the markings on her cheeks. On each of them were two thin and short streaks that almost looked like whiskers. But most people were more concerned with the fact that she was staring down an entire gang that by any odd markings.

She stood in front of the entire Red Dragon gang with hands on her hips, glaring at them all without a hint of fear or nervousness in her eyes. The fire in her deep blue eyes was matched only by the fierceness of her tone, which was that of a might warrior staring down a group of bandits threatening her home. Her index finger pointed right at Tadao.

"You mister, are no shinobi!"

Despite barely reaching up to any of the Red Dragon's waists, she looked at them all with a fire in her eyes. She stood before the gang, fearless and determined. Either she was incredibly brave, incredibly stupid, or both.

She was quite small. A few parents guessed that she couldn't be older than five, but she certainly didn't carry herself like a child, standing with fierce confidence before the Red Dragons, all of whom stood aghast as if their brains simply ceased to comprehend the sight before them, or rather below them considering the child's size.

Tadao and Naoto stood at the forefront of their gang and looked halfway between collapsing in shock, and bursting their sides with laughter. This had never, ever happened to them before.

"You're quite brave little girl," Naoto scoffed "what makes you think you're better than us?"

"Because I know how real shinobi should act!"

Naoto leaned over the girl, looking down at her like an adorable yet easily crushed animal.

"Do you now?" he questioned.

"I do!" she responded, earning a chuckle from Tadao.

"Then please tell us oh wise and powerful shinobi, grant us knowledge on proper shinobi conduct."

"Well. . ." It was at that point that the brave child looked faintly embarrased. Her arms were brought close to each other, and she started twiddling her thumbs as she glanced at the ground. She seemed to be ashamed of herself, like she was losing an argument on the playground.

"Umm, I'm not a shinobi yet. .." Then she looked back up with fresh courage "But I will be!"

"Well," Tadao spoke "if you're not a shinobi, what makes you think you can freely judge my brother like that? It wasn't very nice now was it?" Tadao subtly spun his white knife.

"Neither is stealing ramen! You should all be ashamed of yourselves!" The girl seemed to not notice the sharp weapon and kept at it

"Little girl, did your parents never teach your proper manners?" Tadao sighed.

"Yes they do!" she barked back at the increasingly amused gang.

"Oh yeah? Like what?" he giggled.

"Mommy says to always thank others for what they give you, to consider other people's feelings, to never be afraid to speak your mind, and always, always tell the people you love how much they mean to you! Oh, and to never be afraid to fight to defend yourself." she responded, very proud at repeating her mother's words as she grinned.

"And what about your daddy, little girl?"

"Daddy tells me and Ryuu to be honest with people, to never give up, to reach out to others, and to never be scared of standing up to others, including your friends," she snarled "but especially to bullies who try to push around those weaker than themselves! Which is exactly what you're doing, you meanie!"

The girls nose twitched as she caught a whiff of the aroma drifting from the shop, and she got an even angrier look in her eyes as she looked back and forth between the chef lying on the ground and the scattered pots of food.

"Furthermore, Daddy says stealing ramen is one of the great sins!"

The villagers and Red Dragons shared a look among each other.

Tadao's own eyebrow was in danger of rocketing off his forehead, and Naoto looked close to laughing himself to death, uttering a low, throaty chuckle as he tried to suppress it.

"Tell me little girl," Tadao spoke with a chuckle "what is your name?"

In response, the little girl dramatically crossed her arms and stood to her full height as she glared dead on at Tadao with absolute infernos in her eyes and a confident grin on her lips.

"Everyone calls me Hana, but to you, I am Hanashobu Hinata-"

"Hana!" Suddenly a louder, deeper voice cried out from in the crowd. The call alerted the little girl to an apparently familiar presence, because just hearing this person brought a gigantic, furious pout to her face.

A slightly taller child pushed their way through the crowd with hurried pace, people could see a thick, messy head of pale blonde hair as the kid ran between the people of the crowd as smooth as a swimming dolphin, and with a sudden scattering of dust the Red Dragons found themselves treated to the sight of yet another child standing before them without an ounce of fear.

Or common sense apparently, because the boy looked to be more focused on this Hana girl as he rubbed his hair with a tired sigh.

"Hana, you got to stop running off like this or mom and dad are going to worry." he grumbled.

"But mom was looking at those shoes forever! I got so bored!" Ryuu rubbed his temples at his sisters reply, appearing less of a little boy, more of a tired and weary parent.

"Come on Hana, what would auntie Hinata say?" he moaned.

"But I hate shoes!" Hana whined, reaching a level of pouting not seen in countless millennium.

"That's no reason to go running off!" he said. "Also, why did you dispel the transformation jutsu?" the boy murmured.

"Because I hate looking like that! Black hair is boring!"

"We have to keep those on while we're here Hana. Dad was very clear about it."

"Then why did you release yours!? You're supposed to have brown hair, and that ugly green shirt! Well?"

The boy looked at his own clothing, a black shirt with two big yellow stripes that went from the sides of his neck to the sleeves that were rolled up to his elbows, then down again along his ribs to the shirt's bottom. Beneath that he wore simple deep black pants and some black shoes. In the center of his shirt was a yellow leaf-like symbol, and he wore a necklace with several small yet shiny green jewels. The jewels were cut unevenly as if they were the fragments of something else, but looked beautiful nonetheless. And like his sister, the boy had two small black streaks on his cheeks.

He slumped his head with a sigh.

". . .Okay. . . I hate the jutsu too." The boy looked at her with his bright emerald eyes. "But that's still not a reason to go running off and getting involved in. ."

The boy's gaze drifted upwards to see the incredulous gaze of thirty grown men and the countless aghast eyes of the townsfolk and shop-owners. A veritable stadium of shocked stares and agape mouths, all focused on the two small children.

Ryuu wasn't fully sure, but he could have sworn there was a tumbleweed rolling past somewhere in the street. The silence was so absolute that a pen being dropped would be heard loud and clear by all gathered around the two of them.

Ryuu's hand smacked into his face with a pained groan.

"Hana. . .What did you do this time?"

Hana showed no shame in her actions, and stood tall with renewed vigor, pointing an accusatory finger right between Tadao's eyes like god from on high.

"I was teaching these bullies a lesson!"

"There's thirty of them and one of you." he groaned

"I could take them! I've been practicing!" Hana grinned with a fierce, undaunted pride.

"You need to know more than the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu to get in a fight."

"You're just jealous because I'm a natural with it!" she giggled with a smug grin.

"N-No I'm not!" Ryuu snapped. "I could beat these guys without that jutsu and you know it!"

Ryuu appeared to be shocked with his sudden loss of composure, and shook his head to regain himself, looking at his sister with regained calmness. But he definitely knew the full danger of the situation.

"But, that's not the point Hana, you need to stop-"

The Red Dragons looked at their leader with ever-mounting confusion and disbelief as the siblings bickered with each other, and one fellow with a red dragon tattoo on his face couldn't believe what he had just heard.

"This little pipsqueak can perform the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu?"

Ryuu glanced at the Red Dragons with a sigh. "Oh boy."

Suddenly the air snapped.

Those that could sense it felt Hana going off like an explosive tag as her entire body radiated a fierce wave of chakra. A tiny girl was radiating power from out of nowhere. It was almost invisible, but some of the Red Dragons could see a thin layer of blue light around her dress and hair. Her purple hair gently flowed in the steady breeze she created while her clear blue eyes pierced right into Tadao and Naoto like cold steel.

"Who are you calling a pipsqueak!?"

Hana shouted with a truly demonic tone that frightened most of the villagers surrounding them. She might have tried taking on the entire gang then and there, but Ryuu somehow reappeared in front of her in a yellow flash, his arms outstretched as he stopped her advance to look at the gang with neutral eyes that were almost bored in their composure.

"I am so sorry for the trouble my sister has caused you all,"

"Ryuu! They were-" Hana's protests were muffled by her brother's hand resting on her mouth.

"and if you will kindly excuse us, we need to go find our mom and dad."

Ryuu took a single step back, readying to guide his sister away, but the large and burly hand of Naoto rested on the boy's shoulders, thus stopping his movements. Ryuu looked up at the two with a confused and wary gaze while Hana looked at the entire group with eyes that could pierce steel as she struggled to remove her brothers hand. Ryuu himself made no move to escape from Naoto's grasp as Tadao let out a bitterly amused laugh. High pitched and cruel, greatly unsettling the villagers.

"Oh, we can't let you go kids."

"And why is that." Ryuu's tone of boredom had dissipated, replaced by cold, focused resolve.

"Because you kids don't know how to show respect for your elders." Tadao's knife glistened in the sunlight, its milky blade a brilliant shining tool of death to all who would get in his way.

"This whole system works on respect and reputation, and since you kids fail to show us the proper respect, we're going to have to teach you some manners. Use a little tough love." Naoto grinned like an evil Cheshire cat. Ryuu was not impressed, and Hana only looked even more angry.

"I am very sorry for my sister being a loudmouth."

"Murph! Imf noh a loumouf you herk!" Hana mumbled.

"We will happily leave, and I can teach her about respecting our elders, so you guys can get back to..." Ryuu turned to his sister. "What exactly were they doing again?"

"Blah!" Hana snarled as she removed her brothers hand. "They were trying to steal ramen!"

When those words reached Ryuu's ears, it was like the air broke, again.

Naoto and Tadao's mirth faded from their eyes as Ryuu's own looked back at them. Despite being so young, the boy's gaze turned horribly merciless, icy. Something other-worldly, something not human looked up at the brothers, and actually left some of the gang with a shiver running through their spines.

"One of the great sins..." Ryuu growled.

Ryuu's gaze darted around the wrecked ramen shop, seeing the damage the Red Dragons had left. The scattered pots and pans, the food scattered all over the street, ramen was absolutely everywhere.  
The chef, still laying on the ground, struggled under the heavy foot of Tadao, and Ryuu's gaze fell on the brothers hostage. Hana quietly released herself from her brother's grasp, as his attention was now focused on the sight before him, the spectacle the gang was putting on.

"Be that as it may..." Ryuu snarled as he tried to contain himself "We really should be going."

He shifted to leave, but Naoto's burly hand remained steadfast on his shoulder. The lumbering brute glared at the blonde boy with a sadistic grin, like a wild beast stumbling on a scrap of meat.

"You're not going anywhere, punk." he sneered.  
Tadao twirled his knife as he loomed over the two, the ivory blade glistening in the sun, matched only its menacing aura by its wielders air of precise and razor-sharp cruelty. As he stood over the children, Tadao grinned at their latest targets.

At that point, the expressions on the childrens' faces Naoto's surprise, they didn't look scared in the least. In fact, the little girl looked downright annoyed. Not with Tadao or his brother, but with Ryuu. For his part, Ryuu looked just as annoyed as her.

"Did dad's jutsu already turn on?" she asked, to which Ryuu nodded.

"The word is 'activate,' and yes. Definitely."

"Aww no fair." she pouted. "I wanted to explore more."

"You already explored enough. We'll be lucky if we get off with no dessert."

"No dessert? No, dad wouldn't do that would he?"

"Well, dad might not. But mom will." Ryuu sighed.

"Aww."

"Oi brats," Naoto growled. "Are you gonna start treating your elders will respect, or am I going to have to break your fu-"

**FWOOSH-BAM!**

**FWOOSH-BAM!**

Suddenly two explosions of air and dust knocked Naoto and Tadao off their feet. The force of two bursts between them and the children somehow sent them flying through the air and into the other members of their gang like two over-sized bowling balls on a pack of pins. The crowd was startled and several people jumped back in surprise when those two flashes of color appeared with sounds like tiny sonic booms.

The Red Dragons were left in a confused heap of muscle.

Tadao cursed the decision to get out of bed this morning as he struggled to rise amidst the morons he barely tolerated on a day-to-day basis. Naoto meanwhile looked about ready to smash those same morons into a wall.

But he couldn't see what had happened. Nobody could. Where once there stood children, there was a dense could of dust shielding the two from sight. The only discernible feature of the dust cloud was the faint glow of two lights from where the explosions had originated, and were already quickly fading into the air. One was a bright and flame-like orange, and it had knocked Tadao onto his gang. The one that had smacked Naoto was like a steady pulse of energy, glowing like a street light and colored bright pink.

"That's new." Tadao grumbled. "Naoto, we should-"

Just when it looked like the dust cloud would fade away with the breeze, it was instantly blasted away by a gust of wind. In all directions the dust was sent flying but hitting the Red Dragons the hardest. It was as if it was scattered in one smooth motion.

Some of the nearby villagers began to wonder if some shinobi had arrived, and if so, who?

Could it be one of the famed Konoha 11, or the Octo Sword Squad from the Land of Lightning? Could it be Kage Gaara's sand commandos? What legends could have arrived here today? What spectacular power were they to witness!?

As the dust settled the two new arrivals made themselves known.

"Daddy!" Hana called out.

"Hi strawberry." a deep, almost gruff voice sighed.

Then another voice spoke, this one female and obviously irritated. "Hanashobu Hinata-"

"Mom wait!" the boy spoke up, sounding worried through the dust. "I dared Hana to a race and we got lost so she decided to get some ramen and wait for you. Dad always says he could find us at any ramen store no matter how far so we thought it'd be okay if we just stayed here and didn't get more lost!"

"You didn't race me Ryuu," the girl squeaked. "and even if you did I would've been able to find our way back!"

"No you wouldn't! You get lost easier than Uncle Lee!"

"I do not!"

"Yes you do."

"Do not!"

"You do!"

Instead, when the dust faded away the crowds were greeted with the sight of the children bickering with each other as children often do. Hana had her hands on her hips and was glaring up at Ryuu, who's arms were crossed so tight that he almost looked stuck in that position. Now they were locked in an endless feedback loop of "do's" and "don'ts" with no end in sight.

But that wasn't the interesting part.

What was interesting was that the parent's had arrived not only in spectacular fashion, but also looking nothing absolutely not like these children.

The father was tall, at least six feet. His skin was faintly tan, and he stood with a confidence that went against his overall look.  
He wore simple black shoes that were specked with the dust. His pants were tan and looked rather worn out and faded. "Faded" was a good word to apply to his whole look. He had a on a black button up shirt that was untucked, over which he wore a long jacket, the sole remarkable thing about his attire. But even that had it's flaws. It had a black border around a dark lime green main body, as well as a slightly torn and faded hood that also had a black border.  
Over his right hand was a series of wrappings that completely covered the skin, and on the left he wore a wool fingerless glove that seemed to have seen better days. His hair was a spiky jet-black mess that nonetheless looked oddly familiar to many around him. Over his eyes was a pair of sleek, oval shades. His thick black eyebrows were ever so slightly arched as he looked between the two children squabbling in front of him and their mother.

Said mother looked only slightly more clean than the father. She carried herself with a similar dignified posture that seemed unbecoming of her attire. She was also quite tall, just slightly shorter than the father. Her blue shoes were also charitably decorated by the dust, yet the rest of her was completely clean. Her shoes reached halfway up her shins, and were free of dust from the ankles up. Over the shoes she wore a dull yellow qipao with white trimmings. From the waist down the dress was open so that it draped around her back like two long coat tails. It had a v-neck decorated by a silver necklace, and was sleeveless. On her left wrist was a pearl bracelet, and on her right hand there was a shining ring.  
She had fair skin, which was shaded by a large straw sun hat with a dark red ribbon wrapped around it, which was long and hung off several inches in two strands. Her hair was bright brown and thick, framing her face and large forehead, and it flowed along the sides and the back of her head like waves. She lacked shades so that her bright brown eyes were clear to see. Unlike her husband, the mother's arms were not free to cross in judgement. Her hands rested on the handles of a baby carriage. The lid of the carriage was mostly closed, so nobody could see the inside.

Both parents watched their two children go back and forth. The father seemed to be faintly amused with the argument the two were having, but the mother had a look on her face. A look that only a mother could have when children misbehaved. She looked oddly calm, but the mothers and fathers in the crowd could see that she was not at all calm inside.

Yet Ryuu and Hana were seemingly unaware of the look she gave them, and kept going back and forth on their poorly conceived lie.

But then the mother coughed.

"Ahem."

It was quiet, and gave the impression that she was merely irritated by the dust. But her children suddenly stopped their arguing almost immediately. Ryuu and Hana stood with perfect posture facing their parents. No more arguing, not a peep came from the two of them.

Oddly enough the father himself seemed to have been surprised by her cough, and for a second seemed to glance between his wife and the children. He looked for eye contact with her, and she returned it with a brief shake of her head. The husband sighed as if in relief, and then his wife tilted her head in the children's direction as if giving him her go-ahead. He nodded back, then quickly returned his attention to the two little blessings standing before him.

"Hanashobu, Ryuunosuke, would one of you like to explain what you're both doing out here?"

"It was me dad." Ryuu spoke up. "I dared Hana to a race and we got out of-"

"Daddy," the sister spoke again, this time sounding nothing like the fiery and defiant girl of just a few minutes ago. "Ryuu's just lying."

"Oh?" the dad asked. "And why would he do that Hana?" He asked in a way that sounded innocent, but the way he looked at his daughter showed he knew full well what had happened and was letting Hana spill the beans. She certainly didn't seem reluctant to do so.

"Because it's my fault," she mumbled. "It was boring in the store. I went outside to see other stuff, then Ryuu followed me to bring me back." Hana's hands were held behind her back. Her head was tilted down, avoiding her father's eyes. "Please don't blame him for it." she squeaked.

The father's gaze shifted between his two children, considering them. Both stood with their heads hanged in shame. Their father sighed and looked at his wife, and she returned it. As if they were telepathic, they seemed to have an entire conversation just with their shared gaze. After a moment they both looked at the two children again.

The father uncrossed his arms and gently removed his shades to slide them into his jacket pocket, which revealed his own dull brown eyes. The mother pushed down a wheel lock on the baby carriage, and got down on one knee alongside her husband in front of their kids.

"Hana." The mom reached out to the children's faces and raised their heads by the chins. Ryuu and Hana's eyes met with their mother's.

"Hana," she repeated, focusing on the daughter. "you really had me and your father worried. Do you know why?"

". . .No." she said.

"It's because we thought you could've been hurt." she replied. "Your dad's monitor jutsu doesn't work on everything you know. I know shopping is boring for you and you wanted to see more of the village, but running off isn't safe for you." The mother's eyes softened. "You're a very brave girl and your father and I know you'll become a great shinobi one day. But rushing things like this isn't the way to go about it. As a shinobi," the daughter's ashamed eyes turned attentive like she was in school. "patience is a virtue. If you go at a task without considering it first, you could get yourself hurt. But if you think over your actions and consider what to do, it'll help you a lot. Do you understand what I mean?"

"I. . . I think so." Hana spoke. "A good shinobi doesn't run into danger. A good shinobi is careful and thinks about what to do."

"Very good Hana." the mother nodded. "Very good. So please, I know you get bored when your father and I shop, but please don't run off like this, okay?"

"Yes mommy. . . I'm sorry I scared you and daddy like that. Please don't blame Ryuu for it, he was just looking out for me."

The father's hand reached out to his son and ruffled up his hair. "Don't worry about Ryuu, strawberry." he said. "He's done nothing wrong, just being a good older brother." The father chuckled at them both. "That said Ryuu if something like this happens, just let us know okay? We won't blame you for not being able to solve the problem. You can't take on everything by yourself, ya know?"

"I know dad." Ryuu nodded, looking slightly ashamed of himself. "I need to be able to ask for help from family and friends if I want to be the best I can."

"Exactly." the dad nodded. "There's nothing shameful about asking for help." He tousled Ryuu's hair with a smile.

"Are you and mommy still mad at us?" Hana asked meekly, to which the mom suddenly snatched her and her brother into her arms like two stuffed animals, hugging her children tight.

"No Hana. We're not mad. We were just worried about you. We're happy you're both okay." she said. "My little escape artists."

"Thanks mom." Hana grunted. "I'm sorry we scared you."

"We love you too." Ryuu said. "Um, could you let us go now mom? Please?"

"What? Oh. Sorry." The mother released her children. "If it makes you feel any better, your father did get really distracted by shades, so I know your pain."

"Hey!" the father said. "You were just as distracted by those scarves, and for your information I looked good in every single one of those shades"

"Dad," Hana mumbled. "you can't really pull off Uncle Bee-"

"I already told him." Sakura sighed, and patted her daughter on her shoulder. "Remember what I said about boys?"

"They're all crazy." the daughter spoke, nodding with a sigh.

"Uncle Shikamaru and Instructor Iruka said the same thing about girls." Ryuu interjected. He crossed his arms and glared at his mother.

The mother opened her mouth to counter, but then pursued her lips in defeat.

"Well, that's not exactly wrong." she shrugged.

The father patted his son's head. "Those two are voices of wisdom Ryuu, well done."

"Daddy, are boys more crazy? Or is it girls that are more crazy?"

"My little strawberry is one of the oldest-"

"Graaaagh!"

Suddenly the roar of a Red Dragon member alerted the family. A large member of the gang was rushing at the family with a giant club in hand. It was raised overhead as he ran, ready to smash these new arrivals that had knocked him and his boss on their asses. From the direction of his rush, many in the crowd could see he was running straight for the baby carriage.

But just as the club was swung down on the carriage, it and its owner lost all momentum, kicking up more dust from the sudden halt of so much kinetic energy.

The club had been caught by a single hand of the mother.

She had moved instantly from resting on one knee in front of her children to standing in front of the baby carriage. The only sign that she had moved at all was that there were two shoe prints in the ground where she had once been.  
Not a single person in the crowd had seen her move. The most that any of them had seen was a brief blur of dull red in the air. She had moved faster than the eye could see. The Red Dragon clubber was even more shocked, both by her speed, and judging by how he was grunting in exertion, her strength.

The only one who wasn't dumbstruck was the father. He had moved just as fast, though not as far. He stood in front of Ryuu and Hana, and kept Hana behind his arm.

The Red Dragon was plently horrified, and could barely coordinate his speech through the shock. "What. . .What the fu-"

"Watch your language." the mother hissed.

The mother wasn't small, but the clubber had to be about seven feet tall, and he had biceps the size of watermelons. Even his neck had biceps of its own. Yet he was struggling to gain a single inch against this woman who barely looked to have much muscle on her at all. She didn't seem to be under any strain at all, keeping the club back as if it was a light book.

"Why is it you amateurs always try running in a straight line and screaming?" the father questioned, now standing just to the side of the carriage. His right hand was lowered in front of it. "Seriously, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that's a bad strategy."

"Hey, lady!" Tadao's voice roared, regaining the attention of everyone present. He and Tadao scrambled up from the pile of their gang, many of whom were still dazed by their leader being launched at them with the force of a cannonball.  
But the push didn't seem to have fazed Naoto himself much. If anything he just looked more angry now. He hefted a giant scimitar over his shoulder and glared at the mother with a menacing grin.

"You know what you just did?"

The mother did not even bother to look at Naoto from behind the wall of a man in front of her. "Not really, and frankly I could care less. But I know what this guy did." she called out. Then she returned her attention to the clubber.

"First of all, you just tried attacking my kids. It wouldn't work, but the fact that you tried it has already guaranteed yourself a trip to the hospital. But even if you completely failed at it, you did something else."

The clubber snarled at her as if he was more animal than man.

The mother just sighed. "Why do I even bother."

Then her grip on the club tightened, and it started to bend around her fingers. It was made of pure steel, yet it was now being bent like moist cardboard in her grip. The mother glared back at the clubber, with the fury of a mother bear before her cubs burning in her eyes.

Then her other hand shot to the lid of the baby carriage and slid it open.

The gentle sunlight cast a shadow on the inside of the carriage and bathed the rest of it in a golden glow. The part exposed to sunlight showed a light blue blanket with white trimming. The blanket was being moved and ruffled by four tiny legs that shifted back and forth at random. A few of the crowd could hear the quiet moans of two babies inside.

The babies both had pacifiers, although those didn't seem to impede their voices one bit. One of them had on bright red baby clothes, which somehow looked pale in comparison to the crimson hair on its head. Its voice was a fair bit higher pitched than its sibling.  
Said sibling wore deep orange clothes and had some deep blonde, practically golden hair on it's head. The two were the exact same size, and both had the same cheek marks as their older siblings.

They were both squirming, and clearly upset by the noise that had so rudely interrupted their nap.

At any point they could start crying.

But the look on the mother's face clearly showed that she was far more upset than they were. She was absolutely livid with the clubber. With each second the steel club bent and creaked in her grip. Despite her beauty and grace, she looked about ready to tear the giant clubber in two. Instead she gripped into the club even tighter, completely ruining it. But more importantly she had a firm grip on it, a grip that she used to lower it just above her right shoulder.

She raised her left arm to her right side, just above the club itself. Her fingers, which were previously curled into a deadly fist were now held at their full length. With the club out of the way she could get a clear look at the giant, who was now starting to realize how horrible his day was going to be. That realization came crashing down on him like a pile of bricks when the mother spoke.

"You woke up my babies."

Then her palm struck his cheek like a thunderclap.

The giant clubber was sent flying, scattering dust as he went spinning like a drill through the air. He crashed into the ground with such force that his body dug a shallow trench in the street, much to the alarm of some nearby chickens who ran about clucking in panic.

The mother still held the club in her hand, looking it over like some simple toy. While the rest of the gang gawked at the sight of what had just happened, she took the club in both her hands, one at each end. Without even a single grunt she pushed her hands together, crunching the club into a small ball of mangled metal.

"Sweetie, could you take this? I feel the need to educate these men on proper conduct around children."

He snatchedthe ball from the air with one hand.

"Are you sure?" he replied. He slowly closed the baby carriage with his other hand.

"Don't worry. I'll just knock some sense into them. Isn't that right boys?"

None of the Red Dragons could respond, or even register that she had spoken to them. The gang members, Naoto and Tadao especially, couldn't believe what just happened. One of their strongest member had just been backhanded an entire village block by a woman who barely stood up to his chest, a woman who just crunched a steel club without breaking a sweat. None of them had seen this.

Well, almost none of them. Tadao was having a terrible feeling of deja vu right now.

Against his better judgement he decided to ask the mother a question.

"Hey, lady. Where are you from?"

"The Land of Fire. Specifically the hidden village of Konoha." The mother removed her sun hat and had her husband place it in the lower compartment of the baby carriage. "And I fully intend to punt you all straight back there to serve out your time thinking about what you did. Don't expect me to go easy on you."

"Neither will we." Tadao laughed.

With those words several of the Red Dragon suddenly drew small objects from their pockets and jackets. They all threw their weapons at the mother with desperate fury. Dozens upon dozens of kunai and shuriken were sent her way. In response the mother brought her hands together and quickly formed several shapes with her fingers. There was a faint puff of air from her body that brushed aside dust at her feet. The ground in front of her cracked at the surface to form a perfect rectangle.

"Mud Wall."

The rectangle then jumped out of the ground to form a wall in front of her that caught every single kunai and shuriken. The mother and her family were unharmed, as was the crowd.

"Nice try." the mother said. She released her hands, and the wall cracked. The kunai and shuriken slipped out of the cracks and fell to the ground, clattering on the tough soil and sand. Then the wall itself crumbled into a mass of small rocks and compressed dirt. "Now who wants to try seeing if they can actually hitting me, or are you all-"

Before she could finish her sentence, three of the Red Dragon goons were already rushing towards her with all the speed they could muster.

"Die!" The first one came at the mother from an arc, gently turning as he came closer and closer so that he'd attack her from the left. He seemed quite confident that his bare fists would win the day even after seeing his much larger friend get floored by one hand.

"Take this you monster!" The second showed considerable speed by running up to a nearby roof. His spear had not impeded his climb whatsoever though, and he quickly ran to the edge for a great leap. His spear was raised overhead for a killing stab.

"This is for Clubber!" The third one, a rather big fellow, had learned nothing from "Clubber's" defeat and came straight at the mother with his twin sai at the ready. The three of these goons were rookies in the Red Dragons, and they were very eager to prove themselves to their boss regardless of the danger. They could take this one woman by themselves just fine.

Unfortunately the spearman was knocked out of the sky when a metal ball collided with his face.

The projectile hit with a loud _clang_ and changed his precise strike into a spinning, unconscious flail to the ground, where he hit the street between the crowd and the family.

"My turn." Already the father was in front of his wife and zipping into action against the remaining two Red Dragons.

The sai user made a jab with towards the left shoulder and a slash at the stomach, one with each sai. The jab missed as the father swayed to the side, then caught the sharp blades with his wrapped hand. The sai user was unable to react fast enough before his other wrist was grabbed, and he was spun in the air to hit the first attacker. The two briefly tumbled on the ground before they could regain their coordination, looking furious and yet wary of this new combatant.

The father stood looking at them with a furious glare. He took up a stance with a posture and grace that seemed to say "I know exactly what I'm doing, and you two have no chance against me."

Unfortunately the sai user and the bare fists moron did not seem to pick up on this fact, whether it was from sheer ignorance or unrelenting denial. So they charged at the father with weapons ready.

But there was one odd thing about the father that they both failed to notice. If they had, then both of them would have run away praying to some rabbit god, that nobody believed in nor cared about, to forgive them for their sinful and foolish ways. Tadao had noticed, and he was far from nervous.

He was excited.

Because when the father had caught the sai by the blades and thrown the sai user, nicknamed "Stabby," the blades had obviously scraped his skin and bandages.

Yet the bandages were intact. His right hand had not suffered any damage from the maneuver. This simple father was far more dangerous than he appeared, if Tadao's assumption was correct.

Whether or not it was seemed irrelevant to Stabby and his friend. Their sai and fists slashed and punched at the father. Yet they couldn't hit him. He slipped around the slashes and straight up blocked the punches like it was a game. He even smiled the whole time as he made a mockery of their efforts just by making it all look so easy. His forearms and quick yet simple movements were a marvel to behold for the crowd, as if it were a dance to the father.  
He knocked aside a wild haymaker from the first attacker. He saw another punch coming, and moved to land his own punch on the attackers fist. The father's landed a solid blow with his bandaged arm, such a blow that made his opponent howl in pain and echoed the sounds of cracked bone.

The father made a swift kick to Stabby's stomach to force him back, then grabbed the other's wrist while he was still in ain. With his grip firmly on the wrist of the second's, the father brought his fist against the attacker with a fierce uppercut to the jaw. The strike knocked the man through the air, and he hit the dusty ground hard, and beaten in one blow.

Stabby moved to make a pincer move at the father's neck only for it to stop when his forearms came up again and halted his strikes at his own forearms With his arms wide open, Stabby was vulnerable to a knee to his stomach, a blow that bent his body so that he was within slapping range.

The father then slammed his hands onto the sides of Stabby's head. Stabby was disoriented by the strike so that he couldn't do anything when the father grabbed his wrists in one hand.  
The father brought other hand rose over the sai. His fingers curled into a fist, and a blade shot out from his sleeve. It was wide, wider than a sword, and shiny so that it reflected the sun's swung down and sliced the sai just above their handles. The weapons fell to pieces on the ground.

Then the father slammed his fist into Stabby's face. It was such a strike that it sent the man skidding across the ground. Stabby slammed into his unconscious compatriot like a bowling ball, and then kept going until the two of them smashed through a bench and lost all momentum beneath the splinters.

The father slowly brought his outstretched fist back to near his chest.

"Honey." the mother spoke. "I said I would take care of it." she chided him.

The father's eyes were still trained on the Red Dragons, but he gave a smile.

"What kind of role model would I be for the kids if I just stood by and watched?"

The mother sighed. "You just want to have a little workout today don't you?"

"Perhaps. Don't you?"

"Maybe."

The father pulled on his wool glove, then flexed the fingers of his bandaged arm. The latter had moved as if the bandages were just a decoration. He didn't seem to have a wound in it at all.

The mother meanwhile produced a hair tie, tying her her brown locks into a tight ponytail that spiked out from her head. She bent her neck to the left and then to the right, a gesture that produced several loud cracks.

With these two warriors before their gang, Tadao and Naoto stepped in front of the still gawking Red Dragons. Somehow Tadao was able to maintain a facade of confidence even after having seen two of their guys get creamed in the span of a few seconds. Naoto, despite lacking Tadao's mental abilities, possessed a far more robust ego and was able to convince himself that the gang still had a chance.

The two brothers brought their weapons to the ready. Tadao drew his knife, White Death. It lived up to its name by shimmering like water in the sunlight, and more than a few townsfolk felt uneasy at the sight of its edge.  
Naoto meanwhile hefted a great sword with a slight curve. It resembled a gigantic katana. It had a deep black blade and a red handle, and it looked incredibly heavy.

"Boys, looks like we've got a real brawl for us." Naoto declared.

The father cracked his knuckles. "Oh you've got more than a brawl, jackass."

"Honey!" the mother hissed. "Language." she looked to her children. "Neither of you are old enough to say that kind of language yet."

Bot her children nodded dutifully.

"Sorry dear." the father brought his hands to get to form a hand seal. Three puffs of smoke appeared behind him. They dissipated to reveal three identical clones of the father. The original in the front glanced at them and gave a nod, which they returned in perfect sync.

"Boys, escort Ryuu, Hana, and the carriage to the other side of the street. Oh, and do your best to not wake Takara or Shinachiku. The twins need their sleep."

The three clones gave their salute. One of them walked to the baby carriage and unlocked the wheels, while the other two took one child each. Hana was lifted up to the clone's shoulders and Ryuu took the other's hand. Hana looked pleased to be sitting on her clone-dad's shoulders. Ryuu just looked annoyed at the whole situation. Their mom gave a cough, which drew their attention.

"Remember to watch closely kids. You both might learn something."

"Yes mom." they replied.

While the children were carted away, the mother tapped the father's shoulder.

"I think we should drop the disguise dear."

"What?" The father asked with a raised eyebrow. "Well. . . It would probably scare off a few of these guys. But then people might want autographs and we'll be stuck here for a few hours dealing with the paperwork-"

"Dear," the mother chuckled. "we're shinobi."

The husband shrugged in response. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that."

"No you didn't, you're just trying to be cute."

"No I am not. . . Did it work?"

"Just a little bit."

"Good enough." The father brought his hands together in a hand seal. The mother mirrored the gesture. They both kept their eyes trained on the Red Dragons. The gang could feel a rise in chakra from both of these parents.

"Release!"

"Release!"

Smoke exploded from the father's and mother's bodies, obscuring them both before the crowd and the Red Dragon. Many of the gang members were left coughing by it, and struggled to keep coordinated from the sudden assault on their eyes and throats. Only Naoto and Tadao had reacted fast enough to cover their eyes and keep their breaths held. Both of them stood fast against these new opponents, yet both of them felt a dreadful sense of déjà vu.

As the smoke cleared, that sense hit them both like one of the Land of Earth's new trains. With the smoke's loss, the mother and father were revealed.

Their hearts sank. Before them was not just a mother and father, but physical gods. Two people with numerous battles and deeds to their names, whom were some of the most well-known in the entire shinobi world for how they had shaped history. These two stood as legends.

Their faded and drab clothing was anything but. The dust and dirt was gone completely, showing just how radiant these two people were. They stood tall and proud, with power practically flowing in all directions from their presence. Many of the townsfolk could scarcely believe their eyes, but there was no denying what they saw, what they felt in the air itself.

The father wore deep blue shoes and light gray pants with a kunai holster wrapped around the right leg.  
The father's shirt was black as night with an orange zipper, and overlapped with his pants pockets and the several small pouches on his belt. Over that he wore that famous jacket, one that sported black trimmings that were patterned to resemble flames over a bright orange main body, with a preposterously tall collar. The jacket sleeves only reached to above his elbow, revealing the long black sleeves of his shirt underneath.  
The right sleeve was rolled up to show that the bandages around his right arm were a heavily padded black gauntlet. Toward the end of the gauntlet was a circle bearing the symbol of Uzushiogakure, as well as two small spikes on the end.

The mother's shoes remained the same, but her pants were pure and flawless white, and she had a much larger holster on her leg, containing what looked to be two red short poles with silver-colored ends.  
Her dull yellow qipao was now a bright maroon qipao dress with white trimmings, and a pattern of tiny flowers with five petals throughout its fabric. Underneath the dress she wore a white shirt that covered her upper arms, and which bore the Uzushiogakure symbol on both sleeves. The back of her dress bore an empty white circle, visible to all the crowd.  
Her pearl bracelet was replaced by a pair of fingerless red gloves. The gloves looked like simple items of luxury, but there was noticeable padding on the knuckles, palms, and the back of the hands that showed them to be the garments meant for battle.

The mother's hair was a bright pink with numerous curls, with a red shinobi headband decorating it.

The father's hair was thick and spiky blond, and he wore a black shinobi headband over his forehead.

On the back of the mother's dress was the empty white circle with a red center.

On the back of the father's jacket were several black kanji. "七代目火影"

The mother's green eyes and the father's blue eyes looked on the Red Dragons, who had now just realized how incredibly, hilariously outmatched they were. They were a pack of paper tigers in front of two storms. Two storms that were going to bear down on them at any second.  
The only ones who weren't shaking in their books were Naoto and Tadao themselves, and that was solely because they were both filled with blind rage at the pink haired woman with the two red sticks.

"Sakura Haruno." Naoto snarled. "After all this time I run into you again."

"That's Sakura Uzumaki to you, Mister. . ." The mother's eyes narrowed at him, and her head tilted. "Do I know you? I feel like we've met" she asked.

If Tadao hadn't been resting his hand on Naoto's shoulder, the great fool would've tried charging the two people himself right then and there. Tadao was also pissed, and felt quite eager to finally cut up the woman who had out-dueled him so many years ago. That she had beaten him and Naoto like novices was humiliating, that she had forgotten about them completely infuriating.

"Hold that thought." Naruto's voice snapped the brothers out of their enraged stupor. He turned to face the crowd, most of which were dumbstruck but the sight of him and Sakura. The people whispered amongst themselves.

"That's Naruto. He fought Madara and the Ten Tails."

"The Slug Queen's here? Holy crap."

"The Seventh looks just like the Fourth Hokage."

"They say the Cherry Blossom Juggernaut can break mountains with her thumb."

"I heard the two of them fought an army of Orochimaru's Cursed Seals."

Naruto raised his hand and the crowd fell silent. "Everybody, please either leave the area or back away. The Domei Kage are occupied with guarding a meeting between the Kages today, which is why these. . . Red Dragons have not been arrested today. Me and Sakura will handle this matter, so please remove yourselves from the area If you can."

Naruto paused.

"Or you can all stick around and just watch. Just keep your distance." With that he returned his attention to his wife, whom was still mumbling to herself on just who in the hell the big guy actually was.

"Sweetie," the husband spoke. An idea had struck him "remember that story you told me, about that one drunken guy you arm wrestled?"

". . .Which one?" she asked

"The one that you flipped through the table to prove a point, and because he called you. . . A gigantic female dog I should say." The father stifled a chuckle.

"Daddy what's that word?"

"Nothing little strawberry!" he called to Hana.

Having avoided a parenting bullet and waving to his daughter, the father looked back to his wife, who snapped her fingers as a realization dawned on her.

"Ohhh yes. I remember you. You challenged me to arm wrestling for a date, and then I arm wrestled your entire body into unconsciousness. How have you been since then? You find a nice woman yet?"

"You may have," the father interjected. "you may have run into them about fourteen years ago and beat the snot out of them."

"Really? That doesn't sound like me. When did that happen?" She paused for a second, then nodded. "Oh right. Now I remember." The mother reached into the pack on her leg and removed the two red metal sticks.

"Now if I was in charge of this all I'd say you have one chance to turn yourself in without being harmed, but that's up to the fearless village leader here." she nodded to her husband.

He sighed. "Under my authority as the Seventh Hokage I promise that if you all opt to surrender right now I can ensure you are taken in without harm and perhaps a word in your favor for good behavior." He flicked her wrist, and his sword extended from beneath the gauntlet with a series of loud clanks.

"If not then I'm justified to take you all in by force for attempted robbing, assault, blackmail, and trying to attack the children of a Kage. This is your one chance."

Naoto snickered. "Tch. As if! I'm much stronger than before! This time is going to be different. I've trained hard to not be the wimp I was when Haruno attacked us. With my power and the Red Dragons, there's nothing we can't handle!"

The mother and father exchanged a look, then looked back at the two brothers.

The father coughed. "Right."

"I think your Red Dragons might have gone back to their caves Naoto." Sakura said

Tadao and Naoto realized how quiet it had become terrifyingly quiet since the father and Sakura had revealed their identities. They looked behind them to see that not a single one of their gang had remained. The only sign that they had ever been there were the weapons that had been left on the ground.

It was rather impressive that the group had managed such a quick escape. For Naoto and Tadao it was less impressive and more worrying. They both slowly turned around to the sight of their two opponents. The father Naruto had ejected his sword to rest it on his shoulder in one hand, while the mother was idly spinning of her eskrima sticks with a none-too innocent whistle.

"You know what? Screw it." Naoto hefted his own considerable sword with a grin. "I'm doing this."

"So am I. Even if we loose, I know I'll get in some good hits." His knife whistled as it spun.

"You can try." Sakura chuckled.

"Go mom! Go dad!" Hana cheered from the back of the crown. "Show them how a shinobi really fights!"

Sakura looked at her husband with a smile. "What do you say, Naruto? Think we should give the kids a nice show?"

Naruto smiled back. He spun his sword in his hand several times, letting it sing it's haunting metallic note "Yeah. Let's show them how's it's done."

Naoto and Tadao charged with sword and knife at the ready and roaring at the top of their lungs. Naruto and Sakura ran in response, with Naruto keeping his sword in both hands while Sakura kept one eskrima in each. With weapons and wit they charged, determined to stop these thugs andn get back to their vacation.

Like so many times before, and no doubt many more times to come, these two would fight against those who would threaten the world's people. The Seventh Fire Shadow and the Cherry Blossom Jugwould be helping protect the world for many years to come.

But more than legends, Naruto and Sakura Uzumaki would fight for their children. After years together, the two of them had made a happy life for themselves. They both knew that the days of wars and border disputes were long over, and they were more than happy to have quiet lives with their friends and their family.

But there would also be fights. It was a simple constant of their world to fight. Both of them, and countless others had trained since childhood to fight. While there would be no more wars, there would always be fights, whether that be gangs, monsters, and any number of threats.

And so the two of them would keep fighting. Partly out of necessity, and partly because they enjoyed a good fight. They would continue the battle for their village, for their friends, for their children, and for each other. Naruto and Sakura would continue to ensure that tomorrow would be a good day.

* * *

"Well, they're both asleep." Naruto sighed.

"Really? That fast?"

"Yup. Even Hana was exhausted. All that cheering for us."

"That's so sweet." Sakura gently rocked the cradle. "The twins fell asleep ten minutes ago." she sighed.

"That's good." Naruto strolled to their kitchen counter, where he retrieved his glass of water. He sipped from it as he walked to the living room.

"I hope the other Kages weren't annoyed with you for being late, were they?" Sakura askekd.

"Not really," Naruto said. "Gaara helped cover for me a bit about children to the others, fathers being occupied with kids. Plus when I explained that encounter with that gang they were pretty understanding."

"That's good." Sakura smiled. "What did you guys have to cover?"

"Mainly some trading routes, and we finalized a train route plan between the Lands of Lightning and Water." Naruto snapped his fingers. "Oh and you'll love this, the Land of Sound sent a few ambassadors. They're asking to join the Alliance."

"Really? That's great!"

"Yup. We' should be holding the ceremony in a few months or so, after the delegates look at their books and get a better view of how the Sound is doing."

"Have you picked where the ceremony will be?"

"Either in the Land of Sound, or perhaps here." Naruto shrugged. He walked to the windows and parted the blinds, letting in the dull moonlight of the rainy night. "Me and Gaara tossed a few ideas around but we'll settle on something soon enough, there's not much of a rush right now." Naruto turned from the window. "Did you and the kids have a nice time during the conference? We kind of dragged on about carrots."

"Carrots?" Sakura's eyebrow arched.

"The Land of Lightning really likes carrots. We had to sort out a shipping schedule for the summer harvest." Naruto rubbed his temples. "Darui wasn't exactly happy about the whole thing, poor guy."

"Well. . . Okay then. But yes we had a good time. Ryuu and Hana were thrilled with the presents, and they ended up playing tag with Gaara's kids. Matsuri and I had some tea and talked about how things were going in our villages. Turns out the Sand is using that poison extraction technique nowadays."

"The one that you used on Kankuro?"

"Yup. They use it to treat scorpion stings and snake bites, they haven't had a death in months since they used it." Sakura chuckled. "She also said that the Shukaku's been doing well since it came back to the Sand."

"Oh yeah I remember." Naruto nodded. "What was that, three months ago?"

"Six."

"Ah right."

"Anyway she said that Shukaku's been keeping to. . . Itself?"

"Himself. Shukaku's a guy, I think."

"Right, himself. He's been staying near these sand dunes to the north of the village, and he told Gaara he would protect the village when need be but otherwise he'd just like his peace and quiet." Sakura chuckled. "He did ask them to send a music box with records of flutes though, he apparently really likes flute."

Naruto chuckled. "The tailed beasts all seem to enjoy different music."

"Really?"

"Why do you think I took up playing the guitar? Kurama kept bugging me about getting some guitar music so I figured I'd try it."

"I'm guessing he greatly enjoys it considering how you play." Sakura looked to the cradle. "I know you little demons enjoy it too." she whispered, then returned her gaze to her husband who remained near the window. "And I'm guessing that the octopus. . . Gyuuki that's it, he enjoys Killer Bee's poetry?"

Naruto slowly shook his head. "Nope. He actually really likes harps."

"Yeesh." Sakura rolled her eyes. "They can turn a mountain range to ash yet be subdued by the lyrics of a madman. You're an odd bunch, jinchuuriki's and tailed beast I mean."

Naruto shrugged.

"Baka." Sakura chuckled. "You should've seen Matsuri's little Temari looking at the twins. The three of them were just adorable, staring at each other." she smiled. "Matsuri also wanted to wish you well, she had to leave quickly after the meeting."

Naruto nodded. "No worries. Being a Kage's partner can be a bit hectic."

"Oh, we manage. We could all get together, a little double date. Go to the fair, maybe the beach and then some dinner."

"That would be great." Naruto smiled. "We've got time here." he shrugged. "If you want I can create a few shadow clones to babysit the kids while the four of us have dinner. This new sushi place from the Water Nation just opened up, and Chōjūrō recommended it. A little parents dinner perhaps."

Sakura's lips pursed in consideration for a moment. "Maybe. . . Would you be okay if we brought the kids to dinner?"

"Of course." Naruto nodded. "I wasn't particularly set on it. It's just. . . Well I figured you might like a night out without needing to watch the kids."

"That's sweet of you." Sakura smiled. "It would be nice I suppose." She looked at the cradle.

"Not easy to leave them alone even with shadow clones is it."

"Well, it would be practical. They can be quite a handful sometimes."

"Being a parent isn't exactly a cakewalk is it." Naruto joked.

"No kidding. Bringing Ryuu and Hana to work can be a bit troublesome sometimes." she giggled. "Hana kept chasing Tonton around squealing 'come back Oinko' and scaring the interns with her loud voice."

Naruto smiled. "You should've seen them in the office on Friday. Ryuu kept trying to help with the forms and Hana was climbing on the walls like a spider."

Naruto chuckled, as did Sakura, and the two of them shared a happy smile.

"They're a handful aren't they." Sakura sighed.

"Absolutely." Naruto nodded

"They're little gremlins."

"Little demons."

Sakura giggled. "That they are." she looked into the cradle. "They really are."

"Yeah." From his position Naruto could stare into the cradle as well.

Their two little ones.

"Let's bring them to dinner." he said.

"Agreed. I'll call Matsuri and we'll work out a plan."

"Sounds good to me. Do you think the twins would be okay around a restaurant? All that noise and activity."

"I think they'll be okay. Besides the only few things that seem to wake them up are screaming lunatics and your singing." she laughed.

"Har har har. Just you wait, they'll be repeating my lyrics as their first words."

"You tried that with Hana and the first thing she said was 'yeah.' You baka."

Naruto giggled. "I couldn't stop laughing at that." He tip-toed to the cradle and looked inside at the two sleeping bundles. "They're so quiet right now, but I just know the first words are going to be really loud."

"That's a definite," Sakura shrugged. "They've got some impressive lungs. I'm not sure if they got that from you or from me."

"Could be both. I was apparently a really loud baby."

Sakura smiled at the twins.

"This is just. . ." she paused.

"Yeah?" Naruto asked. He crept over to the couch and gently dropped down to sit next to her. He wrapped his arm around her waist and gently pulled her closer to him. She gave a warm smile.

The living room was quiet, save for the soft pitter patter of rain outside and the quiet crackles of the fireplace. It and a few lamps were the only source of light in the room. It felt cozy tonight, and both parents felt a profound sense of contentment watching the twins sleep, with their little stomachs rising and falling.

"This is just the best. Seeing them sleep, any of the kids sleep, it makes me so happy." Sakura nuzzled Naruto's shoulder. "It's the best feeling in the world." she sighed. "It makes me feel like that first time I did when Ryuunosuke was born. Seeing his little face after he was cleaned, sleeping next to me in the hospital bed."

"I remember how we couldn't stop staring at him." Naruto chuckled.

"Oh you were just amazed with him. I remember you kept saying 'he looks just me, he looks just like me, he's so tiny Sakura.' You were so fascinated with him." she smiled.

Naruto wrapped her in his arms as the memory of that eventful day washed over him. "I remember you stroking his little head and whispering. 'He's really here Naruto, he's finally arrived. ' We couldn't stop from tearing up, remember?"

"Yeah. Yeah I do." Sakura wiped her eyes. "Think I'm tearing up a bit right now, baka." She gently jabbed his arm with a pout. "Stop making me emotional."

"Yes dearie."

They both quieted down. The rain hit the windows, the fire crackled, and the twins slept their deep sleep. Naruto and Sakura watched their two little bundles. They didn't say anything, simply enjoying the sight of the babies safe and happy in their home.

"Hey Naruto."

"Hm?"

"Did you ever think this is how it would end up for us?"

"You mean us together, with four kids?"

"Yeah."

"Well," Naruto paused. "I was never really sure, but as a kid I just hoped that I'd be Hokage and be respected by people. I didn't think I'd have a rival, a weird sensei and a super strong girl as teammates, and I definitely didn't think I'd end up with that same girl and a family all my own."

Sakura chuckled. "Yeah, can't say I did either. I mean, things could've turned out differently in so many ways. I could've ended up with Sasuke, you with Hinata. Who knows."

"I guess we'll never know." Naruto sighed.

"Well, maybe out in the sky there's another world of us, with different stories and histories to our own. Maybe one where Akatsuki had never existed, or one where Minato lived through the Nine-Tails attack. There could be all sorts of possibilities, all sorts of alternate worlds to our own, ones where things happened to us differently. Can you imagine?"

"I can. It sounds to me like Shikamaru's been lecturing about alternate universes again."

"Oh shush, you know what I mean."

"I do. There could be other Naruto's and Sakura's who ended up much differently to us." Naruto gently turned Sakura's head to gaze into her eyes with a smile. "Thing is, I have a secret. Want to know it?"

"Sure." she whispered.

"There might be other stories out there, but this one, this one right here is the one we have. I'm happy with this life. I'm happy with you and Ryuu and Hana and Shinachiku and Takara. I wouldn't trade this story for anything."

"Baka." Sakura felt her eyes tearing up again, and she could see his were as well.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

They leaned to each other as their eyes drifted close, and all the worries of the world melted away.

They were happy, and all was well.

* * *

**Children Info**

(Ending thoughts at the bottom)

Ryuunosuke Jiraiya Uzumaki  
-Age: 9  
-Appearance: Light blond hair, green eyes, two whisker marks on each cheek  
-Element: Lightning  
-Likes: Reading, cooking, drawing, ramen, tea, pineapples, Autumn, family vacations  
-Dislikes: Hot weather, apples, Hana's shadow clones, bullies

Hanashobu Hinata Uzumaki  
-Age: 7  
-Appearance: Dull pink hair, blue eyes, two whisker marks on each cheek  
-Element: Earth  
-Likes: Running, climbing, painting, ramen, cranberry juice, Summer, shadow clones  
-Dislikes: Studying, cold weather, Ryuu's Rasengans, shoe shopping, bullies

Twins  
-Takara Kushina Kurama Uzumaki: Red Hair, bright green eyes, two whisker marks.  
-Shinachiku Mebuki Minato Uzumaki: Deep gold hair, deep blue eyes, two whisker marks

Notes on Twins  
-Both are instantly calmed by Sakura's singing voice  
-Shinachiku was born ten minutes after Takara  
-Both can be stopped from crying by Naruto seeing Naruto's shadow clones performing slapstick routines, Takara laughs very loudly at it.  
-Takara was given Kurama and Kushina's name because Sakura and Naruto took too long deciding which of the two to use, until Tsunade convinced them to just use both on the paperwork, and the names stuck.  
-Shinachiku inherited Naruto's prankster streak.  
-Both showed an alarming chakra level at birth.

* * *

At long, long freaking last is this story done. Hallejuiahhhhh. Halejuiahhhh.

Ahem.

I'm glad I finished this finally, as can be assumed. It's been a long project, and I've added a lot to this story, more than I had originally intended would be here. The chapter "Embers and Snowflakes" was at first intended to be a short flashback but it got away from me, and expanded to an entire chapter of Sakura's. The segment where Sasuke is pounding Naruto's face in like freaking Man of Steel was also unintentional until I got some needed feedback on it. So what was intended as a five-parter expanded into a seven-parter.

I had intended to finish this as the Naruto manga was ending buuut that got away from me as well. (I'm seeing a trend here.) Unfortunately I am not an English major so my schedule for updating my stories is a bit spotty at best. In the future I'm thinking that I'll write a few chapters at at a time, or just write a whole damn book? I could just do chapter by chapter anyway. I'm bouncing ideas around my head a lot.

I had a great time making this and I hope you had a great time reading it. With this done I'm going to be shifting back to continuing Shinobi of Fire, Wind, and Ice, and I have great things planned for it.

If you are a NaruHina fan reading this, then hey good to see you. I like both pairings of NaruSaku &amp; NaruHina. I'm happy with how Hinata ended up in the story, so I've got no ill feelings for it. I'm just kind of a sucker for NaruSaku. But get this. **Hinata is Ryuu and Hana's god mom, and basically their aunt. I'm not sure who she'd be with in this story though. Kiba? Feel free to make up your own mind on it, it's ambiguous enough to allow any pairing. In this she and Naruto are basically siblings and she is good friends with Sakura, and yes is head of the Hyuuga's who abolished the Branch seal system. I feel like just because a pairing is not supported, that's no reason the two characters can't be happy, or even friends. So consider this info an olive branch for Hinata. ^_^**

Now, I am going to explain my reasoning for characterizing Sasuke like I did. If you're a Sasuke fan I recommend turning back now. You're free to like him and disagree with this, and honestly character flame wars aren't something I care about so if you want to avoid a small rant turn away now. If you're not a Sasuke fan (Hi Trevor lol), then sit back and enjoy my reasoning. I did write this primarily for the action setpiece if that helps Sasuke fans. Because come on, big action battle.  
You're free to disagree with me, but know I am free to hate the guy. If you want to post your opinion then don't let me deter you. I do love both his voice actors though, unconditionally. YURI LOWENTHAAAAAAAALLLLL, and the guy who voices Shirou Emiya. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..

Anyway, this whole story was inspired in part by the Naruto vs Sakura OVA 6. I was never really satisfied by the final battle in the manga. Not by the scale, oh lordy no the scale was excellent. Explosions galore. But the feel of it was just, to put it bluntly, bullshit in my eyes. I couldn't stand how massively it ailed at giving a satisfying conclusion, with Sasuke browbeating Naruto into doubting himself like Sasuke was a schoolyard bully, thus making me question the character growth Naruto had gone through. I figured that someone who had fought through a war and against a God would be able to shake of "oh you use shadow clones because you're so lonely." Freaking please.

Sasuke, despite how cool his power are, is a completely irredeemable monster to me. I don't care if his act of freeing the world from the tree was a good thing. He had seen how the world had screwed over his brother, then he had seen how said brother was happy to help the world, and then decides to murder the Kages to create a "new world," ignoring how Madara had tried something similar, and was the literal container of an evil god. Then he treats Sakura like a piece of garbage and denies her a chance to call him out for his crap. When he loses his freaking arm then he decides to help out. . .

So, rewind.

The guy who helped free the population from a genjutsu is still running around free. Despite the acts that five minutes earlier he was talking about murdering the Kages and creating a new world order like another maniacal Uchiha. OH, and he has an eye capable of, if he wanted to, travel to the dimension where the Rabbit Goddess is trapped and freeing her if he happened to decide that he wanted to continue being an anarchy wannabee (band name?). If there was any common sense in the world, the very least the Kages would vote to have Sasuke's Rinnegan removed and burnt to ash, if they were feeling merciful. If not they could've had both his eyes removed and destroyed, then locked him up for the rest of his days. One act does not redeem all the crap he pulled.

So I wrote my own version of the ending. I wrote out the Rabbit Goddess, because honestly that whole thing felt wayy too over the top. Madara on his own was a good villain with a decades long plan to gain world domination, and then he's killed off by this woman we've barely seen. Meh.

So I guess you could consider this a Sasuke who never reached that realization of a new world order as his end goal. Here he just grew bitter and violent. You know, moreso than you would normally be to want to butcher your former friends like a whiny psychopath with a serious inferiority complex. Anyway in this his mind just kind of collapsed into a cycle of almost realizing he could help only to see the face of his former friends and loved ones and blame them for all his troubles. Here he's less of a mary sue villain, I guess, and more a tragically broken one like a feral animal that has to be put down. Harsh? Maybe. Satisfying to see him killed off and burnt his corpse that could start up an eye-based arms race? Definitely.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

If you've somehow stuck around this long. Thanks ^_^. I hope to return to updating Shinobi of Fire, Wind, and Ice soon enough. Semester is looking to be rough though so don't hold your breath. I will be updating though, I promise that.


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